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Published: Thursday, March 1, 2007

Robert Morris hair short of big victory against Penn State

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A scrappy performance by the 16th-seeded Colonials forced the Nittany Lions to overtime.

By TOM WILLIAMS

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

BOARDMAN — For the past eight seasons, Penn State's club ice hockey team has won the ACHA Division I Championship four times and finished runner-up four times.

Wednesday, the top-seeded Nittany Lions (27-5-2) almost didn't reach this year's quarterfinals.

A scrappy performance by 16th-seeded Robert Morris forced the Nittany Lions to overtime. Ten minutes later, Penn State won, 2-1, when Lukas DeLorenzo tapped a rebound past Colonials goalie Jon Hoffman.

Today's game

Today at 7 p.m., Penn State will play Liberty, with the winner advancing to Saturday's semifinal round. Liberty defeated Kent State, 9-1.

"Obviously, Robert Morris played a great game against us," Penn State coach Scott Balboni said. "I don't think we played our best game. Hopefully, we'll get some rest and play better."

Second-seeded Ohio University also was taken to overtime by a low seed, No. 15 Michigan-Dearborn. The Bobcats were bounced, 3-2.

In another upset, No. 12 Delaware defeated No. 5 Oklahoma, 2-1, and No. 10 Oakland defeated No. 7 Lindenwood, 5-4.

"There were some upsets at the rink today and some of those team played really well," Balboni said.

The other top seeds advanced as No. 3 Illinois shut out Washington & Jefferson, 5-0, and No. 4 Rhode Island defeated No. 13 West Virginia, 5-3.

After dominating the first period by outshooting the Colonials, 11-3, the Nittany Lions led 1-0 after Matt Schwartz scored a power-play goal six-and-a-half minutes into the game. Assisting were Nate Obringer and Scott Dakan.

Tide turns

The tide turned in the second period when the Colonials outshot the Nittany Lions, 11-9.

"We just lost intensity, our focus in the second period," Balboni said. "We kind of took our foot off the gas pedal a little bit in the second and part of the third period."

Penn State goalie Nicholas Signet of Sewickley, Pa., who played for Bruce Zoldan's Phantom Rockets four seasons ago, stopped every shot until early in the third period when Brian Garvey beat him from close in to tie the game.

Assisting were Chaz Story and Josh Hickey.

"We're only a fourth-year program at the Division I level," Colonials coach Jason Evans. "We started off kind of slow and spotted them a period, which is kind of tough.

"All year long, we've told them that five-on-five we can play with any team in the country," Evans said. "We showed that tonight — their two goals were on power plays."

In all, Signet stopped 29 shots.

"I would have liked to have gotten it over in regulation, but it felt good to come back," Signet said. "It kind of felt like coming home again.

Family on hand

"A lot of family get to come out and see a game who normally don't get to," Signet said. "I just happy that my Mom [Rosalie] came to see me play."

Balboni said he's been alternating Signet and Aaron Myers.

"Both of my goalies have been playing really well all year and they have been going back and forth," Balboni said. "At nationals, you have to win four games in five days."

Before the overtime, Signet said the vibe in the locker room was that "we have to go to work, we have to bear down. We saw what happened to OU and I'm sure that was in the back of our minds."

Hoffman stopped 35 shots for the Colonials.

williams@vindy.com

Thursday, March 1, 2007