The days of relying on a single No. 1 line are over.
For the No. 4 Penn State ACHA Division I Icers, increased scoring from up and down the roster has put to rest any thoughts of this team as a one-trick pony.
The red line, featuring junior Mike McMullen and freshmen Frank Berry and Luke DeLorenzo, and most recently with Brandon Rubeo stepping in, has been the go-to scoring line for the Icers for much of the fall semester.
In fact, coming in to the weekend's game against Delaware, the top three contributed 45 of the team's 77 goals. Only Berry, DeLorenzo and McMullen had scored in the double digits for their respective goal columns.
In a two-game sweep against No. 12 Delaware this weekend, a new, more balanced, scoring attack had a coming-out party. Eight of the team's 12 goals came from players other than its top three scorers.
Saturday's 6-2 victory in particular showed the newfound scoring touch of the Icers' other lines, when a relatively unknown, at least to the score sheet, trio of Icers accounted for three of the Icers six goals. Sophomores Dave Arcobello and Paul Zodtner and freshman defenseman-turned-forward Andrew Magulick provided the extra punch in the Icers' attack.
"It's nice to see Arcobello and Zodtner and Magulick and that line really play well today," Icers coach Joe Battista said after Saturday's game. "Maybe we found something there.
"That line, not only did they score three goals, but the kept the pressure on the entire time they were on the ice."
The three goals Battista referred to included Arcobello's first two scores of the season. His first came just 36 seconds after another Icers goal and put the team up 3-0 in the second period. Then in the third, Arcobello added his second, an unassisted, shorthanded score.
Zodtner added a goal in the third, on the shift immediately following a Delaware tally. Magulick chipped in a goal also, but during Friday night's contest.
"It gives us more balanced scoring -- more depth," Battista said about the team's newfound scoring line.
Perhaps the most meaningful goal came in the final minute of Friday night's game when senior captain Brett Wilson took a great crossing pass from Luke Walker to record his first goal of the season.
Battista had actually been putting Wilson out on the ice with some of the team's leading scorers in hopes of getting his "snake-bit" captain a score.
"I'm a defensive forward, so I'm not going to score much, but it's just kind of added pressure on me," Wilson said about not getting his first goal until the last weekend of the semester. "I want to contribute offensively as much as I can. It was hard, I was putting a little extra pressure on myself, and I think it was affecting me and how I played all around, so it's good to get out of the way."
The start of the new scorers really came during Thanksgiving weekend's East-West Showcase in Michigan. Sophomore Nate Obringer went off, notching three goals and four assists in three games. Centering the team's No. 2 line, the gold line, between seniors Justin DePretis and Luke Walker, Obringer and his linemates helped to keep some pressure off the top scorers.
Obringer continued his efforts during the past weekend, too, posting two goals during Friday night's victory.
With seemingly new faces scoring goals all the time as of late, the Icers can be confident in the fact that their top line won't have to provide all of their scoring. That spread out scoring will be even more important with big games looming on the schedule, including a two-game series with No. 1 Illinois after the break.



