From The Daily Collegian

By David Eckert

It was well past 9 p.m. on a Tuesday night when skates began carving up the ice at Pegula Ice Arena.

 

Soon, pucks started clanking off the goalposts and thundering from the endboards behind the nets.

 

The lights in the surrounding concourse flickered off as the practice carried on.

 

One player drew chirps and jeers from the bench after missing the net with his shot on a breakaway. Another flapped his arms like wings in celebration after scoring in a shootout drill, a nod to Evgeny Kuznetsov of the Washington Capitals.

 

The clock read 10:47 by the time Penn State Ice Lions, with a day of travel ahead of them, concluded practice and skated off the ice.

 

But they didn’t seem too preoccupied by the time. This practice, after all, was a precious reward that comes only twice a week, at the cost of a serious commitment of time, money and energy from all involved.

 

“We don’t get a lot of help,” senior captain Stefan Horgas said.

 

***

 

The roots of club ice hockey at Penn State run deep, dating back to 1971, when the old Icers played the first game of what became a remarkable, 41-year run of excellence.

 

The Icers won seven national championships, including six under coach Joe Battista, who helped create the American Collegiate Hockey Association, which now governs hundreds of men’s and women’s club teams at schools across the country.

 

The Icers endured just two losing seasons and compiled a .746 winning percentage before giving way to Penn State’s Division I program in 2012. As the best men’s hockey product available in State College at the time, the Icers benefitted from all of the perks resting at the top of the public interest food chain.

 

“We used to refer to ourselves as the best varsity team that wasn’t,” Battista said. “Other than scholarships, we essentially ran our program like a Division I team.”

 

Battista said he even took an annual recruiting trip, heading up through the New England states, New York, Toronto, Ohio and western Pennsylvania on the hunt for players who might fit his team.

 

Horgas, who grew up in State College alongside his younger brother Brendan, who also plays for the Ice Lions, vividly remembers attending Icers games as a child at the old Greenberg Ice Pavilion.

 

“It was definitely more of a niche thing, but they would always have people packed like sardines in the old rink,” Stefon said. “It was unbelievable. The atmosphere was unbelievable.”

 

That unbelievable atmosphere created equally unbelievable perks for the players.

 

Because the Icers drew so well, they earned sponsorships from companies like Pepsi, McDonald’s and Dairy Queen, according to Battista. They charged $7.50 for an adult game ticket and $5.00 for students back in the 1990s. The Icers, at one point, had access to an endowment of around $200,000.

 

All of that revenue significantly lessened the financial stress involved with playing for the Icers. It’s a luxury that the Ice Lions, who have loomed in the background “unofficially” since 1972, according to Battista, do not share.

 

“I wish there was a way for us to be able to make it more affordable for them,” Battista said.

 

***

 

Now at the forefront of Penn State club hockey, the Ice Lions played two games in their home rink this season.

 

They made seven trips out of state, going as far as Louisville, Kentucky — a drive lasting over eight hours.

 

A perfect storm of restricting factors has made it nearly impossible for them to book games at Pegula Ice Arena. Though the Ice Lions predate Penn State’s Division I programs, the arrival of those teams and the interest they’ve captured in the community has made things more difficult.

 

Conflict with the schedules of the Division I men’s and women’s teams is the most obvious among them, but club president and goaltender Will Holtforster said Penn State’s distance from other schools also prevents the Ice Lions from playing at home as much as they’d like.

 

“The DI teams are placed first, as they should be,” Brendan Horgas said. “No one’s disputing that on our end. It’s just a little frustrating on our part trying to co-exist and make it work.”

 

All of the travel creates significant cost. Holtforster said the team’s dues are expected be between $3,000-$3,500 this season, among the heftiest price tags attached to the 57 club sports teams Penn State offers.

 

Holtforster was quick to point out, though, that it’s a cheaper option than playing junior hockey — the route taken by most players who end up competing at the NCAA level.

 

He worked at the Penn Stater as a freshman and in the Sbarro inside the HUB briefly as a sophomore before the time commitment associated with being an executive and the need to be constantly available to his teammates became too much.

 

“They don't take too kindly to [answering the phone],” Holtforster joked. “You've got to be there making pizzas.”

 

The time constraints created by school and hockey make it too difficult for most of the other players on the team to work as well, Holtforster said.

 

But while the Ice Lions’ spreadsheets might look a lot different compared to Icers of yesteryear, the on-ice success has been quite similar.

 

 

The Ice Lions captured their second consecutive Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Hockey title on Sunday, rallying from a 2-0 second-period against Liberty to claim a 4-2 win. Holtforster, Jake O’Donnell and Mike Lassik claimed all-tournament honors.

 

“We were all over them in the first period and then kind of backed off in the second period,” Holtforster said. “They got two on us, and then we came roaring back. It was great. I’m really happy with how we played.”

 

For head coach Cory Myers, who now has two MACH titles to show for two seasons behind the bench, the key to the Ice Lions’ success lies in their team depth.

 

“We roll [forward] lines,” Myers said. “It’s 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4. We don’t have that weak line or anything like that. I think that’s the biggest thing about this year is we roll lines and that’s been working out really well for us. That’s huge for us.”

 

At 17-4-1, the Ice Lions earned a bid to the national tournament in Dallas in late March.

 

The only caveat?

 

They have to pay to get there.

 

***

 

Holtforster just wasn’t ready to give the game up when his high school career came to a close.

 

A native of Ontario, Canada, Holtforster didn’t receive the opportunities he felt he deserved throughout his prep career, and his parents weren’t keen on sending him off to play junior hockey.

 

So he reached out to the Ice Lions during his final year of high school and felt confident about his prospects of earning a spot on the roster come the fall. That figured into his decision to attend Penn State, along with the university’s strong hospitality management program — Holtforster’s career of choice.

 

“I knew that i could keep playing,” he said. “Playing club turned out to be the perfect fit. It was cool because I got to find a lot of other guys who were in fairly similar situations that were definitely good enough to go continue to play at other places, and I think we definitely have guys who could be playing D3 if they did go play two or three years of junior, but you know, same sort of thing, they wanted to go to school. It kind of fills our need there, I guess.”

 

It also requires sacrifice. Beyond the money, the Ice Lions spend countless hours on the road and frequently miss their Friday classes while traveling.

 

If you’re not the type who can study inside a moving bus, you’re going to be in for more than a few long nights of hitting the books.

 

 

"You can try to find some hours to study depending on the game. There's some guys that are better at it than others, finding study time — or being committed to finding study time,” Holtforster said, laughing.

 

So why play?

 

There’s no scholarship money involved, nor is there any real prospect of a playing career after college.

 

“I think in the end, they do just love it,” Holtforster said.

 

“I think for a lot of guys, probably including myself, it’s all I’ve ever known.”

(Originally published at https://www.collegian.psu.edu/sports/club_sports/article_36504d52-35aa-11e9-aa61-ef935fa5e028.html)