Icers Continue Domination on Senior Night

Story posted February 17, 2012 in CommRadio, Sports by Jason Shawley

The Penn State Nittany Lion Icers (26-3-1) defeated the Duquesne Dukes (10-16-1) 8-1 on Friday evening to extend their winning streak at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion to eighteen straight. 

The win on Friday marked the third straight game in which the Icers have won by six goals or more, with a 7-1 and 9-1 sweep of Mercyhurst last weekend.

Five Penn State players were honored before the game for their contributions to the team over their careers. Seniors Kurt Collins, Paul Daley, Dan Petrick, Chris Cerutti, Dan Loucks and Nick Seravelli are entering their final games with the team. 

Despite the indications that P.J. Musico would get the start for the Icers, the coaching staff made the decision to start Matt Madrazo. He was opposed by Dan Szymanski who started for the Dukes. 

The Icers struck early and often, as Penn State scored three goals within the first seven minutes to give them an 3-0 advantage. State College area native Kurt Collins scored first and was followed by Paul Daley and Bryce Johnson. 

Duquesne followed up by notching their only goal of the game when Julian Rizza beat Madrazo with the man-advantage and briefly cut the Icers lead to 3-1.

At the 13:00 mark of the first period, the Icers regained their three-goal lead when George Saad buried a slap shot from the point. Penn State would only extend the lead as the game continued.

Penn State picked up where they left off as the second period began when Michael Longo scored at the 1:25 mark of the period to extend the lead to 5-1. Just over two minutes later, Dominic Morrone scored on an odd-man rush in which his slap shot popped out of Szymanski’s glove and into the net.

Another senior would soon get on the board for Penn State with Chris Cerutti pushing home a rebound from an initial Dan Petrick slap shot to give the Icers a 7-1 advantage heading into the second intermission.

The final goal of the game would come at 12:45 in the third period as Cerutti would notch his second of the game and give the Icers an 8-1 lead, which ended up being the final. The only two seniors who did not score Friday afternoon were Dan Loucks and Nick Seravalli. Seravalli did not play due to a lingering injury. Duquesne was outshot by Penn State 61-14.

On Wednesday, the Icers were awarded the first overall seed in the ACHA National Tournament. After a first-round bye, Penn State will play the winner of sixth-ranked Rutgers and 17th-ranked West Virginia. Penn State has already played each of these teams in the regular season.

“It’s a great way to end their career here at Greenberg,” assistant coach Keith Fisher said about the seniors. “It’s very rewarding to have all of them contribute like they did tonight.”

Seniors Collins and Petrick have played their entire hockey careers in Greenberg, as they both attended local State College High School.

“It kind of puts stuff in perspective as far as how fast time flies," Petrick said about his next to last game at Greenberg. “I was having a conversation with Kurt [Collins] right beforehand, and he asked me if I remembered the senior day in our freshman year. That feels like it was yesterday."

The Icers played their final regular season game as a club hockey team against Kent State on February 17th. 

 

Jason Shawley is a sophomore majoring in Broadcast Journalism. To contact him, email jts5353@psu.edu.