STATE COLLEGE, PA (Sunday, October 15, 2006) -- Penn State broke a 3-3 
deadlock with a pair of third period goals -- followed by a late empty net 
tally -- to defeat Navy's ice hockey team, 6-3, in a penalty-filled game 
Sunday afternoon at the Nittany Lions' home rink in State College, PA.

With the loss, the Midshipmen fell to 4-1-0-1 overall, while Penn State 
(which is currently ranked second in the nation in the latest American 
Collegiate Hockey Association rankings) improved its record to 3-1.

Penn State jumped out to an early lead Sunday with a power play goal from 
Frank Berry at 4:14, followed by an even strength goal from Steve Peck at 
6:58 and a shorthanded tally from Lukas DeLorenzo at 11:22.

For the second consecutive game, the Mids mounted a furious rally.  Down 3-0 
entering the second stanza, Navy got on the scoreboard when senior Patrick 
Sullivan picked up a power play goal just 1:09 into the period, assists 
going to junior Nick Schwob and senior Kevin Krmpotich.

Sullivan soon followed with his second power play tally of the day just 
seven minutes later, at the 8:11 mark, assisted by sophomore defenseman Matt 
Swezey and Krmpotich.

Down 3-2, Navy pulled even at 3-3 when Sullivn registered a natural hat 
trick (three consecutive goals in the game) when he broke in on Penn State 
goaltender Chris Matteo, fired an initial shot that was stopped, then picked 
up his own rebound fired it over the prone netminder at 13:52.  Senior 
defensemen Alex Sandroni and Jim Doherty picked up the assists on Sullivan's 
third tally.

But in the third period, the Nittany Lions put the game out of reach with a 
power play goal from Keith Jordan at 10:58 and a rare even strength goal 
from Scott Dakan at 12:11.  Trailing 5-3, Navy pulled goaltender Eric 
Anderson with just over a minute left in regulation time.  Penn State's 
DeLorenzo fired the puck into the empty net at 19:51 to complete the 
scoring.

Anderson was once again amazing in the Navy nets, finishing with 40 saves, 
including 17 in the first period when the Mids were outshot, 20-4.  Matteo 
had a game total of 14 saves for the Nittany Lions.  For the game, Penn 
State outshot Navy, 45-17.

What promised to be an exciting clash between the nation's #2 ranked Nittany 
Lions and the improved Midshipmen was spoiled by an over-abundance of 
senseless penalties.  In all, referee Josh Quant called 42 penalties in the 
contest.  Navy was whistled for 57 minutes worth of infractions, while Penn 
State was called for 38 minutes.

In the third period alone, with the game tied 3-3 and Navy trying 
desperately to pull off an upset in State College against one of the 
nation's top ACHA programs, Quant whislted Navy for eight separate penalties 
including a five-minute major and a 10-minute misconduct.  The number of 
whistles was so out of hand, even the heavily partisan, blue-and-white clad 
Penn State crowd of over 1,000 jeered and booed Quant when he called the 
late, third period infractions against the Midshipmen.

Navy is idle until next Sunday (October 22), when the Mids travel to the 
Philadelphia suburbs to visit Villanova at 4:00 p.m.
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