October 8, 2004 was approaching quickly. PSU football season already underway with a 2-3 record in what looked to be another down year. Pirates managed to reach 72 wins but tallied another tough to swallow losing season. Steelers are looking great at 3-1 with some guy named Ben Roethlisberger at QB taking over the reins. Pittsburgh Penguins… well… season not set to start on time due to a lockout. Enter stage left PSU hockey…
It was a friday night in October with nothing better to do (ok there probably was but I wanted my hockey fix) but check out what all the talk was about Penn State’s Icers. I was quick to learn this was a program that was annualy one of the top teams at club level and could easily bury visitors with a flurry of goals. They defeated West Chester 7-3 that night and went on to post a 27-6-1 record before falling to Illinois for the ACHA Championship. I was hooked. The team over the four years I spent at Penn State ended up going 117-26-9, falling in the championship game in 3 of those 4 years. This period also saw the always entertaining to watch Kevin Jaeger move into first place all time goals for the Icers. Fans, both students and alumni, always packed the Greenberg Ice Pavilion creating a loud and energetic atmosphere.
Fast forward a few years and we reach the date where rumors began to come out that Penn State was close to announcing a jump to Division 1 hockey. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It was obvious that this news was going to be nothing but good news for both hockey and Penn State.
The dream became a reality on September 17, 2010 when a press conference spilled the beans on the details of what was to come. Terry Pegula and his wife presented Penn State with a large ($88 million) gift to help jump start the transition from club level to Division 1 hockey. The team would begin D1 play during the 2012-2013 season with a new arena opening for the 2013-2014 season. I remember sitting and watching the stream of the presser online, still thinking how big this was going to be. Later that afternoon I started to read quotes from well known figures in the hockey world discussing how big of an impact this was going to be for the sport. Western PA has already seen a boom in youth hockey from the Lemieux era and now Crosby/Malkin. Adding Penn State to the D1 ranks would only further attract attention to the sport of hockey in Pennsylvania.
Now that the first D1 season is underway and the start of Big Ten (or Big 10+2 but 6 hockey teams) hockey coming next fall, I was asked and gladly accepted an invite to blog about the team here and join the TiGO family. My goal on here over the next few months will be to recap the team’s first season playing independent as a Division 1 team and preview things to come with a new arena and new powerhouse conference coming next fall. Then when the 2013-14 season kicks off next fall I hope to provide as much coverage as possible, whether it be personal recaps, discussions with other fans, links to all things PSU hockey related, statistics, and any recruiting news. I really believe the start of the B1G hockey conference will be huge for both Penn State and the other B1G schools and should be fun to cover over the next few years. We Are…
