#1 Lindenwood (4-0) @ #2 Illinois

With two wins each over No. 5 Oklahoma and No. 12 Central Oklahoma to start the season, the Lions are picking up right where they left off last season. In an early season rematch of last year's title game, Lindenwood will try to cement its place atop the rankings and prove its preseason No.1-ranking was deserved.

#2 Illinois (2-0) vs. #1 Lindenwood

On the other hand, with a series sweep of Michigan State to start their season, the Illini will welcome the No. 1 team in the country into their home rink. Certainly a pair of early regular season victories wouldn't exactly avenge last year's loss in the national championship game, but it would sure make a statement to the rest of the ACHA and likely earn Illinois a No. 1 ranking in the next poll.

#3 Penn State (0-0) vs. Towson

The reloaded Icers start off their season with a pair of home games against the Towson Tigers. After losing 12 players from last year's team, Penn State will need some of its 13 new players to step up and make an immediate impact. Also, it should be interesting to see if Teddy Hume is in net for both games, and if so, how he holds up playing two games in one weekend.

#4 Delaware (0-0) @ #23 West Viriginia

In a matchup of ranked teams, Delaware looks to prove itself as a top-5 team and national title contender, while West Virginia will be playing strictly to prove they belong. Then again, these rankings are only preseason rankings and aren't based on any game action yet, so who knows where any surprise contenders may come from?

#5 Oklahoma (0-2) - Idle

#6 Ohio (4-0) vs./@ Washington & Jefferson College

With two wins each over Mercyhurst and Youngstown State by a combined score of 22-3, the Ohio Bobcats will look to continue rolling this weekend against Washington & Jefferson College. With Ohio's first real test, at least looking at the schedule on paper, coming next weekend against Penn State, the Bobcats are looking for a 6-0 start before their clash with the Icers.

#7 West Chester (0-0) vs. Rutgers, vs. William Paterson

West Chester looks to ease into this season with a pair of wins against two teams not on anyone's radar. After playing Rutgers at home Friday night, West Chester will welcome ACHA Division II William Paterson to town. William Paterson is no stranger to playing ACHA Division I opponents on the road after playing a pair of games in Liberty last weekend. Unfortunately, the Pioneers are no stranger to the lamp going off behind their net either, giving up 24 goals to Liberty in losing those two games.

#8 Iowa State (0-0) vs. Indiana

The Cyclones are looking to start off their season with a win -- and they're looking to do so in front of a full house. How's this for a promotion night? Anyone who lives in a residential hall gets $1 off admission AND whichever hall has the most students attend gets a free pizza party afterwards. Pizza and hockey, can't go wrong there.

#9 Liberty (4-0) vs. #19 Penn State - Berks

After starting off the season with four wins against two ACHA Division II opponents, Liberty will play its first game against a fellow Division I team. Despite outscoring William Paterson 24-6 in its two wins, Liberty only beat Davenport by a combined score of 14-9, including a 7-6 nailbiter in the season opener.

#10 Rhode Island (2-0) vs. Navy

The Rams started their season with a pair of wins over Rutgers last weekend and look to remain undefeated this weekend as they welcome Navy to the Brad Boss Ice Arena. Navy, however, comes into the weekend with a record of 3-1 and will look to make a name for itself as a team worthy of being in the top-25. Currently, Navy is not ranked, but is receiving votes.

-Paul

In continuing to try and provide as much coverage of the team as possible, we have launched the newest source for Icers information -- the Daily Collegian's very own Icers twitter!

Personally, I'm new to the whole Twitter thing, so we'll see how that goes, but we'll utilize it to provide quick hits of information and any updates we come across. There is a link to our twitter below, and we hope to soon have our twitter page visible on the side of the blog right on this page.

Daily Collegian's Icers twitter:

http://twitter.com/Collegian_Icers

Also, goalie Teddy Hume brought it to my attention today that he, also, is on Twitter. He seemed pretty excited about the whole idea, and I'm sure he'd love any followers he could get.

Enjoy:

http://twitter.com/teddyhume

-Paul

For those of you who followed us last year, you know how this works, and for those of you new to the blog, welcome. This is a segment we used to call Ten Question Thursday, but since we're starting it today, I suppose it's called Ten Question Tuesday. Well, for now at least.

Here's how this works: Each week we'll pull one of the guys on the team or a coach aside and ask them ten questions, some hockey-related, some not so much. Then, we'll post them here for all of you to get to know these guys a little better and usually to provide a couple laughs.

We've got plenty of new questions, new faces and plenty of guys we didn't get to last year, so this should be an interesting weekly segment throughout the year.

Despite having TQT last year, we somehow managed to let Coach Balboni slip through the cracks of people we interviewed, so I made sure not to let that happen this year.

And here is our first TQT of the season, Icers fans meet head coach Scott Balboni:

1. Who are your top three favorite bands right now?

A: Top three bands right now? Probably Metallica, Good Charlotte, LFO.

2. Who is your favorite Penn State athlete, not on the Icers?

A: Sean Lee.

3. Whose name are you tired of hearing in the news?

A: I'm not really much of a news guy to be honest, I don't really care (laughs).

4. If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be?

A: (laughs) Uhh...probably "Eye of the Tiger" from Rocky.

5. What's the best Disney movie of all-time?

A: I can't even think of any right now. What do I watch with my kids? I don't know...

Paul: No answer?

No answer. I'll have to get back to you on that one.

6. Who is the funniest guy on the coaching staff?

A: John Segursky.

Paul: Any reason?

Driest one-line humor around.

7. Best meal in town?

A: I'd say the G-man (laughs).

(Editor's note: This answer may or may not have been influenced by the fact that Balboni is part-owner of the G-Man as of last year.)http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2009/01/23/gman_sold_to_penn_state_ice_ho.aspx

8. If you had to coach somewhere other than PSU, where would it be?

A: Providence.

9. If you could pull off the ultimate prank on anyone on the team, coach or player, who would it be and why?

A: That's interesting. He's gone now, so I can't say Brandon Rubeo. So I'll have to go with Timmy O'Brien because Timmy will probably get the most people on that kind of stuff throughout the year.

10. What's the most exciting play in hockey? Big hit, short-handed goal, OT goal, penalty shot, big save?

A: I'm going to have to say big hit. A big hit that changes the game.

-Paul

Just a few notes from around the ACHA:

Seeing Stars in Adrian

The ACHA recently announced details for the 2010 ACHA Men's Division I All-Star game. This year's game will take place at 8 p.m. March 20, 2010 at the Arrington Ice Arena at Adrian College. Tim O'Brien was Penn State's lone representative for the game last year, playing for the Blue team, who lost to the White 6-3 in Wooster, Ohio.

On an Island All by Itself

With the University of Alaska joining the ACHA in the Women's Division II for this season, Alaska became the 49th state currently represented in the ACHA. Quick math tells me that leaves only one state without at least one team playing in the ACHA. Any guesses? Pono! (or "correct" in Hawaiian**). Hawaii, understandably, is the only U.S. state not participating in the ACHA, but with obvious travel obstacles, that doesn't seem likely to change anytime soon.

** - I am not fluent in Hawaiian, nor do I know any Hawaiian words other than "aloha." I relied entirely on an internet translator, so if anyone has a correction feel free to e-mail it.

Don't Look Now

Coach Scott Balboni has posted the following records in his three years as the head coach at Penn State:

~ 31-6-2

~ 31-3-4

~ 32-8-1

Once again, a little bit of quick math will give you the number 94 in the win column. With 35 regular season games, the ESCHL League Playoffs and (potentially) the ACHA tournament on this year's slate of games, six wins seems like a relative lock. Balboni's 100th win could come as soon as Friday Oct 17 at West Chester if the team starts 6-0. If the team happens to slip up against Towson, Ohio or West Chester, however, Balboni would have a chance to win No. 100 the following Friday night at home against Drexel.

That's all we got for now. With the regular season quickly approaching (starts this Friday night against Towson), there will surely be more content to come.

For those of you looking for the features from last year's coverage (i.e. Ten Question Thursday), they will be returning this year, starting this week hopefully.

The two Tom's (Copain and Kinslow) and myself will also be shooting a season preview video, which will be posted here this Thursday. We'll preview the schedule, toss out some predictions, give you some players to watch and who knows what else we'll pull out.

-Paul

Well, it's that time of year again. They've sharpened up their skates, taped up their sticks and taken the ice for another season in the ACHA.

And as the Penn State ACHA Division I Icers return to the ice, we too return to Between the Pipes. We hope you've missed BTP almost as much as you've missed the hockey itself, although we know that is not only unlikely, but rather pathetic and irrational.

So anyways, on Monday night, the Penn State ACHA Division I Icers finalized their roster and coach Scott Balboni settled on 30 players that he thinks will give the team its best chance to win its first championship since the 2002-03 season.

As you may (or may not, for who knows what reason?) have read in the Collegian, all returning Icers that tried out for the team made the cut. So, despite the departure of 12 seniors from last year's team, there should still be plenty of familiar faces for those dedicated fans to look for this year.

As always, we hope to bring you plenty of content, both hockey and non-hockey related, about some of your favorite Icers and hopefully we can help you get to know the new guys and learn a little bit about the names you may not be so familiar with at this point.

Below is a complete list of the 2009-10 Penn State Icers. Broken down first by returning players and new additions, and then broken down again by position.

Returning Icers:

- Carey Bell

- Taylor Cera

- Chris Cerutti

- Kurt Collins

- John Conte

- Paul Daley

- Dave Herel

- Teddy Hume

- John Jay

- Matt Kirstein

- Tim O'Brien

- Ryan Paradis

- Dan Petrick

- Marek Polidor

- Chris Pronchik

- Nick Seravalli

- Steve Thurston

New Additions:

- Mike Broccolo

- Brian Dolan

- Ryan Erbe

- Dan Ivanir

- Michael Longo

- Dan Loucks

- Dominic Morrone

- Rich O'Brien

- Dustin Roux

- George Saad

- Eric Steinour

- Mac Winchester

- Joseph Zitarelli

By Position

*Note: Players are listed at each position alphabetically, the order does not represent depth chart positioning or line associations in any way.

Forwards:

- Mike Broccolo

- Taylor Cera

- Chris Cerutti

- Kurt Collins

- Paul Daley

- Dave Herel

- Matt Kirstein

- Michael Longo

- Dominic Morrone

- Tim O'Brien

- Ryan Paradis

- Marek Polidor

- Chris Pronchik

- Dustin Roux

- George Saad

- Nick Seravalli

- Eric Steinour

- Joseph Zitarelli

Defensemen:

- Carey Bell

- John Conte

- Brian Dolan

- Ryan Erbe

- Dan Loucks

- Rich O'Brien

- Dan Petrick

- Steve Thurston

- Mac Winchester

Goaltenders:

- Teddy Hume

- Dan Ivanir

- John Jay

-Paul