Imagine coming into a perennially ranked college hockey team with an 85-page playbook as a freshman, just months removed from high school competition.

Now imagine being thrust into the starting lineup in your team's first game-like situation.

Paul Daley, a Penn State forward, did just that Friday night at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion in the Icers' annual Blue-White game. However, Daley said he wasn't as nervous as one might expect.

"It was exciting," Daley said. "I think that playing two years of Juniors helped a lot."

Daley, an alumni of the Atlantic Youth Hockey League's New Jersey Rockets, said his experience allowed him to adjust more easily to the pace of collegiate hockey.

While Daley earned the starting nod, playing on a line with veterans Jaime Zimmel and Tim O'Brien on the Blue Team, and earned an assist on Zimmel's second half goal in the White Team's 2-1 win.

"I thought Paul played very well tonight," Penn State coach Scott Balboni said. "He played on our first line tonight and I thought he showed he belonged there, which was a good thing out of a freshman."

However, Daley was not the only freshman to impress Balboni.

Ryan Paradis assisted on the first goal of the night, a Taylor Cera score with less than three minutes to go in the first half, and Dan Petrick was named one of the game's Three Stars.

The growth of the freshman class will be critical for the Icers' success this year, as Daley, Paradis, Petrick and Nick Seravelli will all be counted on for valuable minutes.

"Right now we have some freshmen playing in key roles," Balboni said. "It's still going to be, 'Are the freshman -- Paradis, Paul Daley and those guys -- gonna be able to stand up and hang when we start playing games and banging with other teams and are they going to be able to be relied on?' "

While Balboni will have to wait until next weekend's showdown with No. 4 Delaware to see how prepared his freshmen are physically, he has no reason to worry about their focus. When asked what his goals were for the upcoming season, Paradis didn't hesitate.

"Win a national championship," he said.

ODDS & ENDS

• Along with Daley, the Blue Team started O'Brien and Zimmel at forwards with Andrew Magulick and Steve Thurston playing defense. Nick Signet started at goal.


• The White Team's starting lineup consisted of forwards Luke DeLorenzo, Frank Berry and Cera, while Scott Dakan and Kyle Mills were the defensemen. Teddy Hume was the starting goalie and played both 25 minute halves.


• Petrick was named the game's Third Star, while DeLorenzo was named Second Star. Hume was pegged as the game's First Star.


• The White Team outshot the Blue Team, 41-32.

- Patrick

It's finally that time of year again.

The Icers are lacing up the skates and putting on their uniforms to take the ice for their first live-game action of the season tonight -- albeit against themselves.

The annual Blue-White game is set to take place tonight at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion at 9:15, immediately following a pregame skate with the public. Fans of all ages are welcome to attend and take the ice from 8-9 p.m. with the Icers, who will be signing autographs and posing for pictures.

A lot of hockey fans are more interested in the action itself, though, and Coach Balboni said there will be plenty of that, despite the fact it is an intrasquad scrimmage.

The teams and lines will be divided up in a way that Balboni will be able to evaluate where exactly each player stands at this point and which players work best together on certain lines. One way he plans on doing that, for instance, is putting his best scoring line on one team and matching them up against the Icers' best checking line on the other team.

That way, he said, he can see how the offense performs against a top-notch defense and, at the same time, how the defense performs against the team's best goal scorers.

Although the final roster has been set for about 11 days now, playing time and line combinations are still up in the air.

Balboni said watching tonight's game from the stands will help him see everything that is going on and make those tough, final decisions.

He expects to have the final lineup for next weekend's season opener at Delaware set by next Tuesday.

It's not the regular season yet, but for everyone who has been lacking their fill of hockey for the past three months, tonight will certainly help fill that void.

-Paul

The ACHA Division I pre-season rankings were released last week and the Icers will start the season as the No. 3-ranked team in the country behind Lindenwood and Illinois, respectively.

As the defending ACHA champs, Illinois captured the top spot in the rankings after receiving 25 of the 28 possible first-place votes. Lindenwood, last year's runner-up, received the other three.

The Icers don't have to look very far down the poll to find their opponent for next weekend's season opener -- Delaware is ranked just behind Penn State at No. 4.

Penn State is scheduled to play more than half of their games -- 18 of 35 -- against teams ranked in the pre-season top-10. The breakdown of those games is as follows, with the number of games against each team in parenthesis:

No. 1 Illinois (2)

No. 4 Delaware (4)

No. 5 Liberty (2)

No. 7 Rhode Island (4)

No. 8 Ohio (4)

No. 10 West Chester (2)

The two-game showdown against Big Ten foe No. 1 Illinois is set to take place Jan. 17-18, 2009 at Penn State's Greenberg Ice Pavilion.

The Icers are also scheduled to participate in the Salem State Holiday Tournament with three NCAA teams. They will open that tournament playing Salem State on Dec. 27 and then, depending on results of the opening day games, either Bowdoin or Salve Regina the following day.

There's no doubt that the Icers have scheduled an abundance of games against some of the elite teams in the country, but Coach Balboni thinks that will only help his team in the long run.

"One of the other coaches in the league kinda commented that I'm crazy for playing the schedule I'm playing," Balboni said, "but I think it will benefit us when we get to Nationals from playing such a hard schedule.

After all, you've got to beat the best to be the best, right?

-Paul

Just got a press release and the official roster for this year's team. Thought I would share it with you seeing as there were a few names that didn't get mentioned in previous posts.

2008-2009 Penn State Icers Roster

Carey Bell

Frank Berry

Craig Brooks

Taylor Cera

Chris Cerutti

Alan Clark

Kurt Collins

John Conte

Scott Dakan

Paul Daley

Luke Delorenzo

Mike Diethorn

Dave Herel

Teddy Hume

John Jay

Matt Kirstein

Andrew Magulick

Kyle Mills

Tim O'Brien

Ryan Paradis

Steve Peck

Dan Petrick

Mark Polidor

Chris Pronchik

Brandon Rubeo

Nick Seravalli

Nick Signet

Steve Thurston

Brent Tranter

Jaime Zimmel

Coach Balboni said in the press release "I am excited about the new faces. I think we have a great mix of veteran leadership and young hungry players.

"It has the makings to have the best team chemistry of any team since I have been here."

How the team performs on the ice is yet to be seen, but with seniors counting for over a third of the team, there might be something to the chemistry bit.

As for how they'll fare on the ice, we'll get a better feel for that come next Friday (9/26) when the team has it's Blue/White game at 9:15.

I know I'll be there (I'm sort of required to be there), but will you?

-Dean

Seven players, three remaining spots on the team -- that's what today's final tryout came down to.

Today's tryout ran a little differently than the one last week with the players competing in drills at the beginning followed by some 4-on-4 scrimmaging and then, after a quick run of the Zamboni, finished the day with a 5-on-5 scrimmage.

There were more people in the bleachers at today's tryout, as well -- but most of them were there to help Coach Balboni. Employing the help of nine other people, Balboni had guys taking notes and writing down observations, and even had one videotaping the tryout.

"We watched the videotape to make sure there was nothing we were missing," Balboni said. "I had the nine guys here to make sure there was a bunch of eyes watching to make sure I wasn't missing anything and Coach Downey wasn't missing anything either."

As the Zamboni drove onto the ice around 5:15, Balboni and his cohorts gathered together in the bleachers exchanging notes and observations. It wouldn't be entirely unreasonable to compare their meeting to the kind that take place on the trading floor on Wall Street.

Ten minutes later the Zamboni was finished and the players emerged from the locker room for one last chance to impress the coaches on the fresh layer of ice.

"I wanted to go out there and make sure I left everything on the ice," senior Mike Diethorn said. "You can't let nerves get to you and you gotta just leave it all out there."

At 5:45, Balboni called the players together on the ice for a very brief meeting, ending the tryout. The list containing the names of those who made the team was then immediately posted outside of the locker room.

When it came to making the final decisions about who to keep and who to let go, Balboni had a very simple criteria.

"I wasn't going to keep a guy if I didn't think he had the potential to either play this year or help us next year," Balboni said.

-Paul

After three grueling days of tryouts, the Penn State Icers' roster has been settled.

Coach Scott Balboni and his assistants whittled the list of over 70 players who began Wednesday night to a final roster of 30, including 21 veterans.

FORWARDS: Up front, the Icers return Luke DeLorenzo and Tim O'Brien, last season's top two scorers. O'Brien scored 20 goals and had 34 assists, leading the team with 54 points, while DeLorenzo had 21 goals and 27 helpers. Balboni cited DeLorenzo and O'Brien, as well as seniors Jamie Zimmel (42 points) and Frank Berry (26 points), as players who will lead the Icers' offense.

"Up front, we have a majority of [our leading scorers] back with Luke DeLorenzo and Timmy O'Brien, and also guys like Jamie Zimmel and Frank Berry who were in the top five or six on our team in scoring," Balboni said. "I think offensively we've got a lot of talent."

Other returnees at forward:

Taylor Cera

Dave Herel

Matt Kirstein

Steve Peck

Chris Pronchik

Brandon Rubeo

DEFENSEMEN: Depth will not be an issue for Penn State's defense, as the team's top six defensemen from last season all return. Included in the group are seniors Kyle Mills (25 points) and Steve Thurston (22 points). In all, eight defensemen (including six seniors) will skate for the Icers this season.

Balboni said the unit's experience is a major plus.

"That's a big strength for us and the younger guys will have time to develop, they won't be thrown in the fire right away," Balboni said.

Other returnees at defense:

Carey Bell

Craig Brooks

John Conte

Scott Dakan

Andrew Magulick

Brent Tranter

GOALIES: The Icers will return all three goalies who played last season, so no newcomers made the team at the position. Leading the group is senior Nick Signet, who went 20-6 last season with a save percentage of .925. Backing him up will be a pair of sophomores in Teddy Hume and John Jay. Hume went 10-2 last season with a save percentage of .943.

Balboni said he has no worries with whomever is in goal on a given night.

"The three goalies that were here today are our three goalies and I'm very confident in them," Balboni said. "We have a senior in Nick Signet and two sophomores in John Jay and Teddy Hume -- Teddy played a lot last year, John didn't, but Johnny did a lot of work in the off season up in Boston. I'm very confident in them."

The remaining nine players on Penn State's roster made it through the tryout process and were named to the team. They include recruits Chris Cerutti and Paul Daley, two players Balboni is excited about.

"We're real happy with some of the recruits," Balboni said. "I know Paul Daley is going to be extremely strong for us and Chris Cerrutti's a guy that could play right away."

Balboni also expressed his optimism for the coming season.

"I think we have a real good squad," Balboni said. "I thought even coming into today that we had a very strong team and I think we have a very deep team this year, probably one of the deepest we've had in a long time."

The Icers will hold their annual Blue-White Game on Friday, Sept. 26 and will open the season on Oct. 3 at Delaware.

-- Patrick

While the final roster for position players is not set, the goalie rotation is.

Coach Balboni has said the team will carry three goalies:

Nick Signet
Teddy Hume
John Jay

Or the same rotation as last season.

Signet, the team's starter at the position last year, is glad the same three are back. The consistency of the rotation, he said, allows for increased camaraderie between the netminders.

"You don't wish that you were ahead of the guy," Signet said following Thursday night's tryout, "you just root for them to do well."

- Dean

This week hockey finally returned to Happy Valley.

The Penn State ACHA Division I Icers began their three-night tryout process late Wednesday night and continued Thursday. The final tryout will take place early Monday evening, with the team's final roster announced afterward.

Thursday's tryout began with a series of drills that took up about half of the session. The remainder of the tryout consisted of a live scrimmage. Overall, coach Scott Balboni was pleased with the effort of the recruits and walk-ons.

"Right now I think the guys are working very hard," Balboni said. "We had a great pace tonight, a lot of guys battling pretty hard."

Due to the sheer number of players competing for a spot, Balboni said many cuts were necessary to pare the team down to the 30-man roster the Icers will begin the season with. Forty walk-ons and 10 recruits began the week competing for a mere seven spots.

After Wednesday's cuts, 42 players, including 21 returning veterans, remained. The trimming-down process continued Thursday, as the following players were let go:

Steve Marchi
Steve Yurinko
James Recuprio
Ben Cuddy

The remaining 38 players will have their final chance to make the team Monday.

Thursday's tryout also marked the first time the walk-ons and recruits worked out with the veterans. Balboni said this gives the coaching staff a better look at the talents of the potential newcomers.

"It's a key barometer of where guys stand," Balboni said. "The lines are set so some of the guys we don't know play with returning guys. We've got to put them in roles that we think they'd succeed for us and give them every opportunity to see if they'd survive."

Senior forward Luke DeLorenzo said this year's pool of hopefuls is as deep as any he has seen in his four years on the team. He also said Monday's tryout will follow Thursday's format.

"I think it'll be pretty similar," DeLorenzo said. "I think it'll be a little longer on Monday--it usually is."

Check back Monday for the Icers' official roster.

-- Patrick

Ahhhh ... can you smell it? It's hockey season.

Welcome to Between the Pipes, the Daily Collegian's Icers' blog and your home for all things Penn State hockey.

Our concepts for the blog range from streaming game coverage, exclusive player access, web-only content and breaking news. Check back throughout the season for what we hope will be the most comprehensive and in-depth coverage Penn State hockey has ever seen.

Until next time, enjoy yourselves and remember, it's hockey season.

We only wish it didn't smell like mildew.

- Dean