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The Official Newsletter of Penn Men's Ice Hockey!!!    

RECENT RESULTS 1/18  PENN 4  Montclair 5  (Press Release) 1/25   PENN 3  Rider 4 (Press Release)   UPCOMING GAMES Lafayette @ PENN Friday (1/31) 5:15pm Robert Morris @ PENN Friday (2/7) 5:15pm

NEWS AND NOTES: The Quakers are winless in 2003.  They look to turn things around this weekend against Lafayette.   Senior Mike Sand currently leads the team in goals, he notched his 12th of the year against Rider.  Sophomore Micah Cohen leads the team in points with 27. PENN is in 3rd place in the MACHA and ranked 10th in the ACHA Northeast region.

    The last two weekends have been pretty dismal in the Penn camp, but with a few bright spots to look back at.  The Penn team that closed out the year in poor fashion picked up right where they left off through most of January, going 0-3 so far with a chance to close out the month at 1-3 tonight in a game against Lafayette.
        

    On January 18, the Penn team made the trek up to Floyd Hall in New Jersey to play a game against Montclair State in front of a pretty good crowd of Penn hockey families and alumni.  Penn came into the game trying to avenge the trouncing that Montclair had dished out in December, but came out onto the ice looking just as flat as they had in their previous few games.  Montclair scored first, on a powerplay goal in just under five minutes of play.  The second goal of the game also came during a Penn penalty, but this time it wasn’t in the back of the Red and Blue net.  Matt Scatterella put the puck home on a pass from Micah Cohen to even the game at one.  Just as it looked like the tie would carry into the first intermission, Montclair scored with just 1:16 remaining.  Despite a lackluster first period, the Penn team was hanging in there.
       

     The second period was much of the same, Linemates Dan Remick and Justin Mascitelli set Mike Sand up for a goal early in the second period that evened the score at 2, and despite outshooting the Montclair team 17-6 in the period, Montclair scored two quick goals at the midpoint of the period and never looked back.  Penn came out fired up in the third period down 4-2, and Pat Linneman scored in just 2 minutes to bring the game within one.  Shortly, though, Montclair answered back with what would prove to be the game winning goal making it 5-3.  Penn outshot Montclair 17-5 in the third for a game total of 51-22, but were unable to breach the goal line again until less than a minute remained in the third.  Penn valiantly attempted to even the score by pulling the goalie, but was only able to convert once on a Cohen goal, making the final score 5-4 in favor of Montclair.  Coming off of a well-played third period, though, Penn hoped to go into the next weekend carrying some steam. 
        

    The following weekend, Penn hopped on the bus again and headed north, this time to Lawrenceville, NJ to avenge another earlier loss to MACHA division leader Rider.  Penn came out fired up from the get-go and the game proved to be the match-up that everyone had hoped for.  The scoreboard in the first period didn't look so good for the Penn squad despite outplaying Rider with an incredible intensity and energy they hadn't shown since early November.  Penn dominated play all over the ice but its problems with goal scoring continued early in the game.  Rider capitalized on a couple of defensive mistakes to make the score 2-0 with only a minute remaining in the first.  However, Penn was not going to go into the locker room with nothing to show for their dominating play all over the ice.  Defenseman Owen Callahan took matters into his own hands and, playing shorthanded, put the puck in the back of the net with just two seconds remaining in the period.  Charged by this effort, the Penn team went into the locker room down a goal but liking their chances at victory. 
       

    The Penn team continued it’s scoring woes in the second period though.  Rider took further control of the lead scoring just 2:36 into the period, and Penn shot the puck 18 times and managed to score only once, again shorthanded, on Ben Martin’s blast from the point. Still though, the Penn team was dominating play all over the ice, they just had to make it happen on the scoreboard. Again, they felt confident going into the locker room at the second intermission. 

    And again, the Rider team punched a hole in Penn’s sails early in the period, scoring a goal just two minutes into the third to make it 4-2.  Penn answered back two minutes later in the form of a Sand goal assisted by Mascitelli, but that was all they could muster.  Rider’s hot goalie had turned away 51 shots by the end of the night and Penn once again came out on the short end of the score.   However, the great team effort did not go unnoticed by the players and fans, and the team seems to be coming together to make a another run deep into the MACHA playoffs. 
        

    The team resumes play this weekend at the Class of 1923 arena against a strong Lafayette club.  This game has no league implications, but a win here could really serve to get things going for the Penn squad as their postseason future is up in the air.  A win against Lafayette would be a huge catalyst for a solid run into the post season.