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OT: PSU Ice Hockey

CAPPY 2016-10-22 02:31:21 UTC #1881

Too bad PSU could not hold on to the 3-1 lead, but a tie is better than a loss.

CAPPY 2016-10-23 01:28:58 UTC #1882

PSU beats # 3 ND in OT in S. Bend tonight 3-2!

mjg 2016-10-23 01:31:32 UTC #1883

We went 1-0-1 for the weekend. Notre Dame never led either game. I suspect we'll be ranked come Monday afternoon.

CAPPY 2016-10-23 13:37:51 UTC #1884

UncleLar 2016-10-23 22:35:24 UTC #1885

We should be. We're currently 6th in the Pairwise (which at this time of the season just emulates RPI), the criteria the NCAA uses to select tournament participants.

mjg 2016-10-24 13:12:29 UTC #1886

[quote="mjg, post:1883, topic:1343"]We went 1-0-1 for the weekend. Notre Dame never led either game. I suspect we'll be ranked come Monday afternoon.[/quote]
We should be. We're currently 6th in the Pairwise (which at this time of the season just emulates RPI), the criteria the NCAA uses to select tournament participants.

It's too early for that to have any meaning though. Not enough data points yet.

CAPPY 2016-10-24 16:57:41 UTC #1887

6 in the Pairwise Rankings.

mjg 2016-10-24 18:11:55 UTC #1888

That's a disappointing ranking. We went to South Bend to play the #3 team in the country. The two games lasted a combined 126 minutes and 20 seconds. We never trailed for even a second. I watched both games and thought we were every bit as good as them (I thought they were a little better Friday, we were a little better Saturday). Oh well, we still have a ton of games left. The rankings don't matter at this point (this poll only counts for pride at any time).

CAPPY 2016-10-31 16:36:11 UTC #1889

UncleLar 2016-11-04 15:09:01 UTC #1890

[quote="mjg, post:1588, topic:1343"]BSD chimes in on the recruiting class. No one has mentioned a transfer who is coming in as a junior as well. D Trevor Hamilton played a year and one (maybe 2) game at Miami. He's also in the USHL this year. I guess Penn State can't announce his arrival until later since he's a transfer and doesn't sign a letter of intent. But BSD could mention it.
Also, about Denis Smirnov, he's on pace to become just the 5th player in USHL history to score 40 points in each of his first 3 seasons in the league. If he does, he'll join Kyle Connor, Shane Sooth, Mike Seidel and John Kemp. Connor is probably the top freshman in the B1G this season (Michigan) and was drafted by the Winnipeg Jets (17th pick in round 1) in 2015. Sooth is having a nice career at Northern Michigan. Seidel played for Minny Duluth for 4 years (scored 88 points if I added correctly) and now plays in the ECHL. Kemp played two years for Nebraska Omaha. I can't figure out where he went from there.

Smirnov was also drafted by the KHL a couple years ago. If my memory is accurate, first round, 40th pick (no clue how that works out).

Anyway, here is the BSD article.

http://www.blackshoediaries.com/2015/12/23/10654216/penn-state-hockey-recruiting-class-2016-17-sturtz-smirnov-pavlychev-jones-peyton-gadowsky[/quote]

Smirnov is up to 38 points on the year. That's good enough for 7th in the USHL (tied with another PSU signee, Nathan Sucese). He's scoring at about a point per game pace (38 points, 39 games), so it's possible he reaches the 40 point mark this week.

While I was in NY for the Super Saturday deal, I was talking to a very knowledgeable hockey guy (he has coached for USA hockey) who told me that Smirnov is the real deal. I can't wait to see some of the Roar Zone signs for him once he arrives on campus - the kids could have some real fun with his name.

Looks like my source was right. Smirnov is now tied for 5th in the country in scoring and 1st among freshmen.

mjg 2016-11-04 15:34:18 UTC #1891

[quote="mjg, post:1588, topic:1343"]BSD chimes in on the recruiting class. No one has mentioned a transfer who is coming in as a junior as well. D Trevor Hamilton played a year and one (maybe 2) game at Miami. He's also in the USHL this year. I guess Penn State can't announce his arrival until later since he's a transfer and doesn't sign a letter of intent. But BSD could mention it.
Also, about Denis Smirnov, he's on pace to become just the 5th player in USHL history to score 40 points in each of his first 3 seasons in the league. If he does, he'll join Kyle Connor, Shane Sooth, Mike Seidel and John Kemp. Connor is probably the top freshman in the B1G this season (Michigan) and was drafted by the Winnipeg Jets (17th pick in round 1) in 2015. Sooth is having a nice career at Northern Michigan. Seidel played for Minny Duluth for 4 years (scored 88 points if I added correctly) and now plays in the ECHL. Kemp played two years for Nebraska Omaha. I can't figure out where he went from there.

Smirnov was also drafted by the KHL a couple years ago. If my memory is accurate, first round, 40th pick (no clue how that works out).

Anyway, here is the BSD article.

http://www.blackshoediaries.com/2015/12/23/10654216/penn-state-hockey-recruiting-class-2016-17-sturtz-smirnov-pavlychev-jones-peyton-gadowsky[/quote]

Smirnov is up to 38 points on the year. That's good enough for 7th in the USHL (tied with another PSU signee, Nathan Sucese). He's scoring at about a point per game pace (38 points, 39 games), so it's possible he reaches the 40 point mark this week.

While I was in NY for the Super Saturday deal, I was talking to a very knowledgeable hockey guy (he has coached for USA hockey) who told me that Smirnov is the real deal. I can't wait to see some of the Roar Zone signs for him once he arrives on campus - the kids could have some real fun with his name.

Looks like my source was right. Smirnov is now tied for 5th in the country in scoring and 1st among freshmen.

My original source (who moved away so I don't get to bug him about recruits anymore) was a USHL scout. He told me I should be excited about Smirnov right after he committed. He had scouted Smirnov when Smirnov played in Wilkes Barre (with Pavlychev). That was a big reason why I followed his USHL career so closely. Nothing he does really jumps out at you unless you really focus in on him. He looks like he's going in slow motion. But he always seems to be in the right place, makes the right pass and his passes are mostly very precise. There is such a calmness to his game -- like everything is going in slow motion in his mind and he sees everything. And he's incredibly efficient with his movements. Sturtz is a bull in a china shop compared to Smirnov being a ballet dancer (does that make sense)?

mjg 2016-11-05 00:49:57 UTC #1892

More on Smirnov-- he has two assists through two periods. According to the TV guys, he has tied the team record for consecutive games with a point at nine games. He's only played nine games in his career.

UncleLar 2016-11-05 05:52:13 UTC #1893

And he's moved up to third in the country in scoring.

UncleLar 2016-11-08 06:07:55 UTC #1894

Holy Schmoly, Nikita Pavlychev is one big dude. I don't think you can fully appreciate his size either watching him on TV or looking down at him from above in the seats at Pegula. Here's Brian Tripp, the voice of the hockey team, interviewing Vince Pedrie, who's listed at 6' tall in this week's video segment. Tripp appears almost as tall as Pedrie.

Now here's Tripp interviewing Nikita. He looks like a hobbit in this one.

Now imagine the added height that Pavlychev gets when he laces up his skates. He has to be close to 7' when he's out on the ice.

mjg 2016-11-14 19:45:31 UTC #1895

Penn State cracks the top 10 for the first time ever.

http://www.uscho.com/rankings/d-i-mens-poll/

Only 11th in the other poll.

http://www.uscho.com/rankings/usa-today-mens/

But 3rd in the Pairwise ranking (even if it's still too early to be meaningful).

http://www.uscho.com/rankings/pairwise-rankings/d-i-men/

UncleLar 2016-11-14 23:46:00 UTC #1896

This early in the year, the pairwise pretty much mimics the RPI. Unlike basketball, hockey RPI was a factor built in that eliminates the drop that can take place when, because their opponent is so bad, a team's rating drops even though they win the game. Penn State has been making out in spades the last couple of weeks as their opponents have been pretty bad, as is this weekend's in Arizona State (there are 60 D1 hockey teams - AA is 59th, Niagara is 58th, ASU is 53rd). Frankly, I think that's an adjustment that shouldn't be there.

mjg 2016-11-19 02:39:06 UTC #1897

Smirnov had a hat trick tonight against Arizona State. That gives him 8 goals and 12 assists on the season. He already has the PSU record for consecutive games with a point (10) and tonight he tied the record for goals in a game with 3. He and Sturtz also set a new team record for fastest consecutive goals when they scored 11 seconds apart in the second period.

Other records that seem pretty reasonable at this point assuming he stays healthy:

Most points by a freshman is 27 by Casey Bailey and Sturtz
Most goals by a freshman is 18 by Sturtz
Most assists by a freshman is 16 by Scott Conway

Reachable, but more difficult:

Most points by anyone is 40 by Casey Bailey
Most goals by anyone is 22 by Casey Bailey
Most assists by anyone is 26 by Taylor Holstrom

I'm not sure about other single game records. I haven't looked those up yet. I know he has had 3 assists in a game once. The way he passes, if they keep him on lines with guys like Sturtz, he could end up with a 5 assist night someday.

UncleLar 2016-11-20 00:05:47 UTC #1898

More on Smirnov-- he has two assists through two periods. According to the TV guys, he has tied the team record for consecutive games with a point at nine games. He's only played nine games in his career.

Smirnov had a hat trick tonight against Arizona State. That gives him 8 goals and 12 assists on the season. He already has the PSU record for consecutive games with a point (10) and tonight he tied the record for goals in a game with 3. He and Sturtz also set a new team record for fastest consecutive goals when they scored 11 seconds apart in the second period.

Other records that seem pretty reasonable at this point assuming he stays healthy:

Most points by a freshman is 27 by Casey Bailey and Sturtz
Most goals by a freshman is 18 by Sturtz
Most assists by a freshman is 16 by Scott Conway

Reachable, but more difficult:

Most points by anyone is 40 by Casey Bailey
Most goals by anyone is 22 by Casey Bailey
Most assists by anyone is 26 by Taylor Holstrom

I'm not sure about other single game records. I haven't looked those up yet. I know he has had 3 assists in a game once. The way he passes, if they keep him on lines with guys like Sturtz, he could end up with a 5 assist night someday.

Two more points for him in this afternoon's 8-0 route of Ariz St. Going into tonight's games, he's second in the country in scoring.

CAPPY 2016-11-20 16:34:41 UTC #1899

mjg 2016-11-21 15:30:28 UTC #1900

[quote="mjg, post:1892, topic:1343"]More on Smirnov-- he has two assists through two periods. According to the TV guys, he has tied the team record for consecutive games with a point at nine games. He's only played nine games in his career.[/quote]
Smirnov had a hat trick tonight against Arizona State. That gives him 8 goals and 12 assists on the season. He already has the PSU record for consecutive games with a point (10) and tonight he tied the record for goals in a game with 3. He and Sturtz also set a new team record for fastest consecutive goals when they scored 11 seconds apart in the second period.

Other records that seem pretty reasonable at this point assuming he stays healthy:

Most points by a freshman is 27 by Casey Bailey and Sturtz
Most goals by a freshman is 18 by Sturtz
Most assists by a freshman is 16 by Scott Conway

Reachable, but more difficult:

Most points by anyone is 40 by Casey Bailey
Most goals by anyone is 22 by Casey Bailey
Most assists by anyone is 26 by Taylor Holstrom

I'm not sure about other single game records. I haven't looked those up yet. I know he has had 3 assists in a game once. The way he passes, if they keep him on lines with guys like Sturtz, he could end up with a 5 assist night someday.

Two more points for him in this afternoon's 8-0 route of Ariz St. Going into tonight's games, he's second in the country in scoring.

The team tied a record for most goals in a game with 8. It's a new record for largest margin of victory. 8 different players scored those goals, which is obviously another record.

If Smirnov wasn't off to such a great start, we'd probably be talking a lot more about Nate Sucese. He now has 8 goals and 6 assists on the season. He's on pace to break those freshmen records as well. As excited as we were with the freshman class last year, this class is blowing it away. Smirnov, Pavlychev, Sucese, Myllari and Peyton Jones are all playing their positions better as freshmen than we've seen before (Kerr and Pedrie might be exceptions but Myllari is holding his own for sure).

Speaking of Pedrie, he has 5 goals this year putting him in good position to break the single season record for goals by a defenseman (8 by Pedrie and Luke Juha last year). I think he's also only 2 goals shy of the career mark for goals by a defenseman (pretty sure Juha had 15 total).

Really when you look at our roster and the number of freshmen and sophomores that are leading the way, you can't help but get excited about the future of the team.

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