2022-23 Penn State Nittany Lions

[Lindsay]

I'm going out on a limb because I haven't really focused on it, but I think Tessa Janecke gets moved around and not always matched with Kiara Zanon. I suppose that would be Kampersal's way of kind of "spreading the wealth", if that makes sense. I did notice in the later part of the game today Janecke and Zanon were back on the same line. Like I said, though, I haven't been paying a lot of attention to lines this season, so take this with a grain of salt.

Have you gotten your hockey star a Penn State jersey yet?

Lol must have got lost in the mail! ;-)

[Reddington]

Zanon plays like Arteri Panarin and Janecke plays like a Tkachuk. Both made the NHL All Star game, but both would not necessarily play on the same line even though they are both all stars. Janecke plays 100 percent center which has a lot of responsibility in the Kampersal scheme. I think Janecke and Zanon can have success with anyone they play with and Zanon who plays Center only some of the time this year, has been unleashed as a wing and has allowed her to be the playmaker that she is. Going back to last year there could be recency bias as the Heising and Zanon stack did not pay dividends in the playoffs.

Playing three lines consistently and sometimes four has paid dividends in the last six games as PSU has owned the third period.

I think everyone knows about Zanon and Janecke and how good Correia, Mackay and Wallin have been production wise kind of gets lost in the headlines.

[HockeyDad2023]

Finally Top 9 NPI...need to sweep the rest of the way and can't falter to a low end team. Otherwise it could be win CHA Tournament or bust. Like this group a lot. Good Coach and some high end talent!

[PSUfan]

I think everyone knows about Zanon and Janecke and how good Correia, Mackay and Wallin have been production wise kind of gets lost in the headlines.

Correia and MacKay will be greatly missed next year! Hopefully PSU can work some more transfer portal magic for 2023-2024.

[ZedLeppelin]

Penn State moved up to #9 ahead of Clarkson in this week's USA Hockey poll: https://www.usahockey.com/college

[PSUfan]

CHA regular season champions get a nice prominent display in Pegula (right as you walk in the main gate): https://twitter.com/PennStateWHKY/st...38089283289089

PSU athletics also e-mailed information about purchasing tickets for the Best of 3 semi-final games Feb 24-26 but have not yet posted game times. The men have home games that weekend so the women will likely end up with a Friday afternoon game for Game 1 which is unfortunate.

[Reddington]

Lindenwood beats RIT 4-2. It's a bit of a surprise to me, but Lindenwood is a hard trip. Vasdani scores again for RIT and Dobson had an assist. RIT has to win tomorrow and even if they end up tied in pts, Lindenwood would have the tiebreaker. Mercyhurst beats Syracuse 2-0. The new coach at Syracuse has major problems. It's a bit odd as oftentimes a new coach does better with the outgoing coach's players. It is hard to fathom that Syracuse has one goal in the last three games.

[ZedLeppelin]

RIT has to win tomorrow and even if they end up tied in pts, Lindenwood would have the tiebreaker.

As of tonight, Lindenwood is two games up on RIT (4 points). After tomorrow, Lindenwood finishes with a series at Mercyhurst and RIT has Penn State, which doesn't look real good for either of them, so I don't think RIT is going to catch Lindenwood...but it's the CHA, so who knows?

The new coach at Syracuse has major problems. It's a bit odd, as oftentimes a new coach does better with the outgoing coach's players. It is hard to fathom that Syracuse has one goal in the last three games.

Syracuse's drop is the biggest surprise for me this season. They kept DeSmet and Bellefontaine as grad students, and have 9 other juniors and seniors on this season's roster, so you would think not much would change for them after Paul Flanagan retired. How does a coaching change alter a program with so many upper classmen?

[Reddington]

It could be as simple as
KLimek and Dirologamo graduated from Syracuse.

[Reddington]

Mercyhurst sweeps Syracuse 4-2 in the second. Perrault remains red hot. Lindenwood sweeps RIT with a win in ot in the second. It's official PSU vs Lindenwood in the CHA playoffs Mercyhurst will get Syracuse again. Is Robert Morris coming back next year or the year after?

[mar7967]

RMU is back next year. I believe Lindenwood can still pass Syracuse in the standings if they sweep Mercyhurst next weekend - Case has 13 points with no more games, Lindenwood is at 10. So PSU will likely play Lindenwood, but there's a chance it could be Syracuse.

[Reddington]

Always down to the wire in the CHA. Good observation on it not being set in stone yet. The conference misses RMU.

[Bkruczynski]

Ohio State fan here checking up on fellow BIG10. Does Penn State have to win the CHA to get into NCAA tournament?

[ZedLeppelin]

Ohio State fan here checking up on fellow BIG10. Does Penn State have to win the CHA to get into NCAA tournament?

Yes, the winner of the CHA tournament moves on to the national tournament.

[PSUfan]

Ohio State fan here checking up on fellow BIG10. Does Penn State have to win the CHA to get into NCAA tournament?

As Zed said, the winner of the CHA tournament gets an auto-bid to the NCAA tournament. As far as an at-large bid, right now PSU is at #9 which is a "bubble" spot for an at-large bid given that 11 teams make the tournament and both the CHA & NEWHA tournament winners get auto-bids. So I'd say that PSU does need to win the CHA tournament to make the NCAA tournament, because if they lose in the CHA tournament, their pairwise ranking will probably drop.