Pregame Notes for Penn State vs Robert Morris Rematch at the 1st Annual Three Rivers Classic

Penn State Starting Lineup

Bailey-Glen-Gardiner

Loik-Holstrom-Brooks

Longo-McDonough-Olczyk

Friedman-Steinour-Saad

Jensen-Sweetland

Lordo-Varley

Juha-O'Brien

Musico in between the pipes

So to give you some pregame Penn State Hockey info obtained straight from bench boss Guy Gadowsky yesterday after the Head Coach Press Conference at Consol Energy Center that featured Robert Morris Head Coach Derek Schooley, Ohio State Associate Head Coach Steve Rohlik and Gadowsky…

- Top defenseman, freshman Mark Yanis (broken ankle), has not skated all week and will not skate this weekend in Pittsburgh. The initial goal was to have him make his return to the lineup for the Three Rivers Classic, but that never ended up becoming even close to a reality (due to the progress he was making). But he did say his possible return to the blueline is January 11-12 at home vs the US 18U Developmental Team (but for better confirmation to talk with the team doctor and medical staff). He’s been out of the lineup since the November 3^rd 4-2 victory against Buffalo State where he suffered the brutal injury. The big bodied, 6'3" Yanis, was a strong presense on the Penn State blueline for the seven games he appeared in before going down with the broken ankle. Paired with fellow freshman Luke Juha to make for what was easily their best D pairing with a great balance of offensive and defense skills between them. He not only had two goals and two assists and was a plus-3, but contributed in all facets of the game seeing time on both the powerplay and penalty kill for Gadowsky and Co., but was a strong presense down low, gritty as evidence by his 12 penalty minutes in 7 games, and used his big frame to his advantage. You typical defensive-defenseman. Gadowsky mentioned that it will be nice to have Yanis' big shot on the powerplay once he returns to the lineup.

- No specifics because of the short number of his players in Pittsburgh at the time I talked to him, but he told me there will be some changes to the powerplay

- Also talked very in depth with him about his powerplay, which right now is only clicking at lowly eight percent (5-for-60) on the season despite many opportunities and looks at the net. The goals will eventually sneak in for them at some point. Also did not get any specifics for the same reason before. This is what he had to say:

“We have A LOT to work on and we still have a ton to work on the foundation before we start looking at the powerplay. We’re disappointed with our powerplay SUCCESS RATE, but there are things about it that we like that we’ve been working at to get as basic of a foundation set as we can. And we’re doing that basically with a very young team that you get a bunch of different pieces to the puzzle. We don’t exactly have everyone on this team that’s going to be on our powerplay yet. So it’s a work in progress still. Really, you’re correct that we’re not thrilled with it at all, but its not an area we spend a lot of time on by design. We’ve got a lot of other problems too (smiles)! But its something that’s going to come along its just not at our forefront right now and to spend a lot of time on it maybe in the coming the personnel is going to be different. We are pretty much doing things by design right now, but I’m not all together disappointed with some of the aspects to our powerplay to be honest with you because we’ve had some really good chances [on the powerplay this season]. I’d [definitely] like to see us improve on our success rate and maybe this weekend could be a start to that”

What The Massive Marlins-Blue Jays deal COULD Do Down The Line

I mentioned in my initial introduction that this would would ALSO be the place for my insight on baseball. This won't just be the one stop shot for Penn State Hockey, but for the time being since Penn State Hockey season and the baseball season doesn't overlap, you'll obviously get more Penn State Hockey coverage than baseball. But this week is an important one in the world of baseball with all of the award winners being released and one significant hiring that I'd like to talk about later.

But the biggest news maybe in all of sports was just announced not too long ago and reported by Jon Morosi of Fox Sports. In a massive blockbuster move, the Miami Marlins have agreed to trade shortstop Jose Reyes, starters Josh Johnson and Mark Buehrle, catcher John Buck and utility man Emilio Bonifacio to the Toronto Blue Jays for shortstop Yunel Escobar, young starter Henderson Alvarez and four of the Blue Jays top prospects: shortstops Adeiny Hechavarria, pitchers Anthony DeSclafani and Justin Nicolino and outfielder Jake Marisnick. This all pending approval by Bud Selig and Company along with player physicals obviously. If you people thought that the huge Red Sox and Dodgers deal was huge, this one is slightly bigger in terms of pure magnitude, contracts being traded and sheer number of players in the deal.

Most baseball fans know all the guys that the Blue Jays acquired and what they bring to the table. But lets get a quick snap at the guys the once again new-look Marlins will be getting. Baseball Prospectus has Jake Marisnick rated as a five star prospect, Justin Nicolino as a 3-star, and shortstops Adeiny Hechavarria as a plus-plus defender. Baseball America's Nathan Rode has Marisnick as the Blue Jays #2 prospect (and #67 best prospect in all of baseball), Nicolino #5 with the Best Changeup and Control in the system, and Hechavarria #8 as the Best Defensive Infielder and Best Infield Arm in the system. The 23 year old Hechavarria appeared in 41 games with the Blue Jays in 2012 with a .254 average, .280 on-base percentage, .365 slugging percentage, 2 home runs, 10 RBI. Marisnick appeared in both Advanced-A Dunedin and Double-A New Hampshire in 2012 and Nicolino threw 124.1 innings for Single-A Lansing. This is a Blue Jays system that consistently gets rave reviews by scouts and baseball writers as one of the best in baseball.  Blue Jays General Manager Alex Anthropolous and Marlins GM Mike Hill definitely did their due diligence on these prospects before pulling the string on this massive deal.

Here are my thoughts on what the tremors of this blockbuster Marlins/Blue Jays could POTENTIALLY be. First, don't be surprised if the Marlins keep this fire sale going and one of those shortstops they got from the Blue Jays (Escobar or Hechavarria) or 25 year old talented outfielder Logan Morrison goes to the Pirates in some sort of deal over the winter. Corner outfield and a long-term shortstop option are two of the pieces the Pirates are looking for. Second scenario that I think could happen is one of the two shortstops the Marlins got  (Escobar or Hechavarria) goes to the Diamondbacks for Justin Upton since Diamondbacks General Manager Kevin Towers is obligated to acquire a shortstop or third baseman for his prized 25-year star Justin Upton. Third scenario, would be one of the two shortstops (Escobar or Hechavarria) goes to the Pirates and the Pirates then flip that player to the Diamondbacks for Justin Upton since Pirates General Manager Neal Huntington coveted Justin Upton during the 2012 trade deadline. Word came out after the trade deadline that the lack of a third baseman or shortstop Kevin Towers badly wanted in a potential Upton-to-Pirates deal is one reason the deal never went down. Look at other teams such as the Angels, Royals, San Diego, Red Sox, and Orioles to possibly contact Marlins GM Mike Hill in regards to one of the shortstop options

Thoughts on Men's series split vs Air Force

RIT was the Nittany Lions first big test of their inaugural Division I season but you get the picture, right? Okay lets move on then. Since I unfortunately wasn't in attendance for any of the four games this weekend (the two Men's and two Women's vs Robert Morris) due to being in Albany, New York all weekend, this won't be a wrap-up but more or less a few of my thoughts of the two games.

Despite not having freshman Mark Yanis (fractured ankle) and Jonathan Milley (hip pointer)out of the lineup and freshman Luke Juha (Mississauga, Ontario) apparently playing "very ill", the Nittany Lions were able to own the play against a solid Air Force Academy squad and split the big two-game weekend series against them. They did in fact snap a nice four game winning streak after their 5-1 loss to Air Force on Friday night, but turned the page quickly and won themselves 5-1 on Saturday. There were a few things I was able to take out of these two games.
 
In Saturday's victory, we finally got to see signs of the Matt Skoff (McKees Rocks, PA) fans were excited about, including myself, coming into this season. Not only being from a high school that was sports rivals with my alma mater, but Skoff was a highly regarded netminder from a great Sioux City Musketeers program of the USHL. Reports I read mentioned how Skoff stayed square and saved a lot of point-blank shots thrown at him while also having great rebound control on Saturday night, something he wasn't doing much his previous three starts this season. He was given the nod in between the pipes from Head Coach Guy Gadowsky early in the season until the torch was passed over to PJ Musico (Orange, CA) after Skoff lost his first two starts vs American International and Buffalo State. Who knows, we might have a little competition for more playing time brewing up here between Skoff and Musico now? Quite frankly, both Skoff and Musico need that added competition to push each other to work harder down the stretch. It can only make both of them better in my opinion.

Pretty much the entire season, we have not seen much production out of freshman defenseman Connor Varley (Landsdale, PA). No knock on him or anything because of course it's going to be a tough acclimation as a freshman in a brand new Division I program. Varley has been looking shaky overall, having trouble staying out of the box and also looking somewhat confused with the puck in terms of decision making. His numbers don't really reflect this style of play, ie: 10 penalty minutes and a plus-3 on the season, but you have to have watched him play to understand. He's not even in the top five in penalty minutes on the team, but his penalties have been lazy (that's the best word I can think of!) and have come in bad situations. 

But despite all that, Varley seemed to have maybe turned a switch this weekend and showed what he could be capable of down the stretch for the Nittany Lions. First, he was penalty free in the two games this weekend. Most importantly, he was able to put a puck into the empty net for his first career goal and the Nittany Lions fifth goal on Saturday. Also, he was responsible for throwing the initial shot on net deflected by teammate David Glen past Air Force netminder Jason Torf for the Nittany Lions' fourth goal. Saturday was definitely Varley's best game as a Nittany Lion as he needs to step up to help fill the loss of Yanis for two months.

It was also nice to see a big three point night out of sophomore Max Gardiner (Deephaven, MN), who I was excited from the get-go to see play this season. That's due to him being a 2010 draft pick of the St. Louis Blues and you know, being the brother of Leafs young talented defenseman Jake Gardiner. That was by far his best night as a Nittany Lion and he didn't have fellow monster Jonathan Milley on one of his wings this weekend. 

Finally, they out-shot Air Force 35-24 and frankly outplayed them in both games as evidence by the animated post game comments by Air Force head coach Frank Serratore on Friday. But they finished 0-for-6 on the power play Friday night and 0-for-2 Saturday. That my friends, is one thing that desperately needs improvement is the power play. If opponents want to keep taking penalties, they need to start capitalizing on these key opportunities with a man advantage and not let them go to waste. They are currently 4-for-43 on the power play, a 9.3% clip, which is absolutely pathetic. They are also not getting enough pucks to the net to get those opportunities, averaging 1.5 shots per power play. Union, Wisconsin, Robert Morris, Ohio State/Miami(OH) and Michigan State will likely stay disciplined and not give as many power play chances that lesser programs like Buffalo State, Sacred Heart and Army have done for the guys so far this season.

Sorry, but something needs to change on the ol' PP immediately, especially getting 2011 Frozen Four Union College in Schenectady, New York on November 24 and 25. Union will be by far their toughest test so far this season. Union currently owns the FOURTH BEST power play in all of NCAA Men's Division I hockey (46 for 190 at 24.2%) and the 11th best penalty kill (24 for 156 at an 84.6%). Read that again and soak it in. The Nittany Lions also are one of most penalized teams in NCAA hockey so far, too. So put all those together and think about what needs to be done in the next two weeks for Coach Gadowsky and Co. These guys are exceeding expectations so far, but that is the one big improvement that need to be made.

Blowouts against Sacred Heart shows Penn State's depth

You can read my summary on ComRadio on their 6-0 victory from Friday night here. That will give you all you need to know about that game. But this will be more of what I took out of this very successful weekend for the ladies.

It looks like Nicole Paniccia will be an absolute wall in the cage and be that much-needed rock solid netminder. There is nothing else to say about the great job Nicole has been doing so far this season. After she stood on her head and made 59 saves and grabbed the #1 star in the 2-2 tie against RIT on October 26th at home, in my eyes that was the game that really showed her true talent and what she's capable of doing. She's been nominated twice for CHA Goalie of the Week and was a nominee for October's Goalie of the Month. Her resume coming in was strong as it is, but I've been nothing but impressed with what she has done. 

But this talk is all about the team's depth so let's start rollin'. We saw EIGHT different scorers in the 8-2 victory on Saturday afternoon against Sacred Heart (with each players season goal total is in parenthesis): Shannon Yoxheimer (9), Taylor Gross (3), Emily Laurenzi (1), Kendra Rasmussen (1), Jill Holdcroft (2), Jess Desorcie (1), Jenna Welch (1) and Madison Smiddy (1). This was obviously their most goals scored on the the season and tied their biggest margin of victory of +6. They showed a lot of secondary scoring this weekend, especially on Saturday, with five players grabbing their first goal of the season. All of this will only help them moving forward and all four lines made their play stand out. If that doesn't show a team has great depth, I don't know what does then! 

Alternate captain Jenna Welch mentioned how it "was great to see them get rewarded for their hard work" and "for us to be successful we need to work together and play like we did this weekend."

The usual suspects, the trio of Shannon Yoxheimer/Taylor Gross/Jess Desorcie (pictured right with Jeanette Bateman), continued to show up on the score sheet and made their contributions. Yoxheimer, the team's leading scorer, was her usual beast-mode self and found a way to find the cage and grab her 7th, 8th, and 9th goals of the season over the weekend. She's now scored a goal in SIX CONSECUTIVE GAMES and I don't think she will show any signs of slowing down. The jaw dropping moment from Shannon this weekend was the absolute bar down missile she ripped from the top of the faceoff circle IN TRANSITION on Friday night. Yes, impressive. It will be really fun to follow her progress throughout her collegiate career at Penn State. She's currently tied for second place in the CHA in goals with nine in what's only her freshman season. She was also a nominee for the CHA Rookie of the Month and Player of the Month for October. Could we potentially see her win either of those year-ending awards? Scary to think what she could be capable the rest of her career.

Yoxheimer's linemate, captain Taylor Gross, continues to rack up the apples (for all you schmucks, that means assists) with three over the weekend and nine on the young season.  I see her as the ol' Henrik Sedin of the Nittany Lions (or for some older folks, Adam Oates) with her leadership, great vision on the ice, and ability the rack up the assists. Her Division I experience coming from UConn made a great complement to this very young team. My comments on Desorcie will come later-ish.

But this weekend seemed to be all about the other players showing their true colors and showing exactly how deep this team can be down the stretch. First has to obviously be the emergence of Hannah Hoenshell as another offensive threat. As most already know (or if you read my Friday game summary), Hoenshell became the owner of the first ever hatty (once again people, that means hat trick) in Penn State NCAA hockey history on Friday night...Men or Women. She was flying all over the ice in the 6-0 win using her speed to create her own opportunities and finished the night with 11 shots on net and threw another five on net Saturday. But she was also suffering from extreme dangleitis with some disgusting stick handling. To quote one of my favorite sports media people John Buccigross, Hoenshell had some "frothy mitts" on Friday. She teamed up with Katie Zinn and Emily Laurenzi for a very efficient line in that 6-0 win.

The speedy hometown girl Jill Holdcroft was on a line with Micayla Catanzariti and Birdie Shaw on what may be the most energetic and fast line you will see. Catanzariti and Shaw have already shown this season what they can bring to the table and Holdcroft fittingly found a way to step up big at home (read my Friday game summary for more on that). That line is full of Energizer bunnies who aren't afraid to get in battles along the boards. All three see time on the penalty kill, which is definitely spot on for their styles of play they've shown so far. If getting in scraps were aloud in college hockey, my first two choices to drop the gloves would no doubt go to someone on this line. Seriously, this is such an awesome line.

But the key ingredient to come out of this was the emergence of the trio of alternate captain Jenna Welch, Kendra Rasmussen, and Tess Weaver. Their emergence as a great overall line will be key down the stretch as the ladies will be taking on a tough Robert Morris team in a two game home series coming up and then get a strong #5 ranked Mercyhurst at the end of November. Coach Josh Brandwene even addressed the Welch/Rasmussen/Weaver trio in his post game after the 8-2 victory stressing how great of a weekend they had. They have been the perfect example of a great "role player" line and this past weekend really showed how great those three together can do.

Also what stood out big time for me was the outstanding play by all four of the centers this weekend. As mentioned in my article, Emily Laurenzi and Jess Desorcie had themselves great all-around games in Friday night's 6-0 victory as Desorcie was 13 for 17 in the faceoff circle and collected assists on both of Yoxheimer’s goals. She continues to be that reliable top line center with great vision on the ice and great overall hockey tools (you can compare her to a five tool player in baseball). Her NCAA experience definitely has been showing. Laurenzi was a plus three, 11 for 16 in face-offs and most importantly a key contributor to Hannah Hoenshell’s historic hat trick on Friday night.  But Kendra Rasmussen was the center that had her "coming-out" game on Saturday with her first collegiate goal while also going 14 for 18 in the faceoff circle to continue being reliable in the dot clicking at a 54.2 percent (52 for 96) on the season.

One name we have surprisingly not heard much about this season who deserves a lot more attention is freshman defender Paige Jahnke. She finished BOTH games this weekend with a plus-4 and is now an impressive plus-8 on the season in 10 games played (which now puts her in the top 10 in the CHA in plus/minus). So far this season she has proven to be a very reliable puck moving defenseman in addition to being versatile getting playing time on both the power play and penalty kill. Cannot forget the 13 blocked shots on the season with three coming in Saturday afternoon's 8-2 win. Her and Jeanette Bateman have teamed up to make a great defensive pairing for the Nittany Lions with Paige being more of a two-way defenseman and Jeanette looking more like a solid stay at home blueliner. Bateman has a plus-6 on the season with 13 blocked shots like Jahnke, but she has only taken one penalty (unlike like Paige's four) and has shown great ability down low and clearing out in front of Paniccia.

Big bodies Yanis and Milley suffer injuries in 4-2 win vs Buffalo State

According to Men's head coach Guy Gadowsky, freshman defenseman Mark Yanis (Grosse Pointe Woods, MI) will miss approximately two months with a broken ankle. In addition, freshman forward Jonathan Milley (Gatineau, Que.) suffered a hip pointer on a in Saturday night's home game against Buffalo State and his status for this weekend's two-game series against Air Force is still undecided. Pictured below is Milley against American International in the inaugural home opener. Photo credit to Mark Selders of gopsusports.com.  

For those not aware of what happened to Milley on Saturday, he was viciously slashed from behind by Buffalo State forward Nick Melligan in the second period and came off in a lot of pain and was helped into the locker room. For those of you hockey historians, it similar to the Adam Graves on Lemieux hack in 1991 but not as blantant and bad. I saw Milley after the game sporting some crutches, which normally isn't a good sign before even getting a prognosis. Hopefully there will be more details to come later in the week on Milley. The 6' 4" Milley has played the majority of the season alongside 6'3" Max Gardiner and 6'3" Casey Bailey to make a trio of monster power forwards who are troublesome for opposing defenders down low and in front of the net. Granted, they have 32 penalty minutes between the three of them (two for Gardiner, 18 for Bailey, 12 for Milley) but they epitomize the type of system Gadowsky likes to implement.  My guess would be junior Justin Kirchhevel (Brookings, SD) to take Milley's spot in the lineup if it comes down to it. He's appeared in five games this season and somewhat fits the bill of a power forward. He's yet to find the scoresheet in those five games, but I think he could fill in with Gardiner and Bailey just fine because of his hard-nosed style of play.
 
As for Yanis, the 6'3" blueliner has not missed a game this season and has been a reliable and versatile defenseman for the Nittany Lions. He sees time on both the power play and penalty kill and has teamed up with fellow freshman Luke Juha to make for a solid pairing for Coach Gadowsky. He's mostly shown to be more of a stay at home blueliner but has tapped into some offensive ability with two goals and two assists so far this season. He will be a tough guy to have out for that chunk of time, especially with Air Force coming to town this weekend and then on the road against 2011 Frozen Four participant Union on November 24-25. Then they get more tough opponents in the Three Rivers Classic in Robert Morris and potentially Ohio State or Miami (Ohio) rounding out the schedule in that two month span. Coach Gadowsky will probably have to look for someone like Rich O'Brien or Brian Dolan to step up and take Yanis' spot in the lineup. The senior O'Brien has three appearances this season while Dolan has only appeared in one. Both bring a veteran presence to the Nittany Lions blueline as both were carry overs from the club program. But saying that O'Brien or Dolan could slide right in and replace Yanis' game for two months is expecting a lot out of O' Brien and Dolan. Lets see what Coach Gadowsky does during his first big test to his depth in this inaugural season.

Welcome to "Beyond the Box Score"

Welcome all to my brand new website, a one stop shop for all things hockey and baseball. This will focus on coverage on the Penn State Men's and Women's hockey teams as well as my insight on the entire world of baseball. THAT IS IT. For Penn State Hockey, you will be be getting as close to expert analysis as you'll get from Penn State students that see and follow both teams on a regular basis. This will hopefully be where the best coverage is for both Penn State Hockey teams. I'm hoping to eventually have on board with me some of my buddies to help with coverage. You can also follow my coverage on Penn State ComRadio.

This website was made and dedicated to publish my unique content to help build my experience in the world of sports media. I have huge aspirations for myself and I feel that this would be a great way to show what I have. First, I would like to clear up that in no way is my intention to crush my buddy Kyle Rossi over at "Thank You Terry". He does a fantastic job on there and works extremely hard on his website. Go over and take a gander at everything on there because you will definitely come away impressed and a huge fan like I am. I can only hope this website will become as popular and well-known as "Thank You Terry"

Second, I will hopefully be the host of my own "Beyond the Box Score" sports talk radio show on Penn State ComRadio starting in the spring that will focus only on baseball talk. Until then, I will try to eventually post weekly podcasts talking about ALL THINGS Penn State Hockey and whatever big baseball news arises during the offseason (I'll have news about that another time). I am also looking to have some one-on-one audio interviews with Penn State hockey players. Then once the baseball season rolls around, some voices in the baseball media in addition to Minor League and Major League baseball players. Until then, enjoy!

Blue Band Hockey Theme Song by Ross Insana