By: Frank Murgia

Twitter: @RealFrankMurgia

Facebook: TalentNetwork

A five-on-five hockey fight broke out Saturday night in the USHL between Sioux City and Sioux Falls. The Sioux City goalie that is challenged at center ice is Matt Skoff from Pittsburgh.

Matt Skoff is the son of my longtime friends Joe and Kathy Skoff. Also noted that Matt Skoff led his Montour High School team to the W.P.I.A.L. Hockey finals in 2009. Montour is the alma mater of the Skoff parents and myself.

Matt Skoff will be attending Penn State University in the fall as a key figure to the team as PSU will launch the first season of its Hockey Program. The Penn State team will play a few games of its first season at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh as well as in Philly as kind of a statewide tour until it opens a new 6000-seat arena on campus in the fall of 2103 Skoff did us all proud in this fight and is suspended for the next two games.

Check out the video! Sioux City vs. Sioux Falls 2/18/12 Line Brawl. This one is a beauty and includes the goalies going at it at center ice.

Related Read: (from the Sioux City journal) Musketeers' Skoff is USHL goaltender of week Article Highlights:

SIOUX CITY - For the second time this season and the fifth time of his three-year career, Matt Skoff of the Sioux City Musketeers has been honored as the United States Hockey League's goaltender of the week.

A native of McKee's Rocks, Pa., Skoff went 2-0-0 with a 1.44 goals-against average and a .944 save percentage last week. The Penn State recruit made 23 saves in regulation and in overtime. Skoff then stopped all three Omaha attempts in the shootout, picking up his 59th career victory.

Skoff (15-16, 2.98 GAA) has started 12 straight games and has won five of his last six starts. Also included in that six-game stretch was a 3-2 win at Omaha on Jan. 20. Skoff is also tied for the league lead with three shutouts. He ranks third in saves (845) and fourth in minutes (1742:05).

"Matt Skoff is playing fantastic hockey," said Musketeers Coach Brett Larson. "We think we have the most clutch goalie in the league. He proved it last weekend." Over his three-year career, no active goalie in the USHL has won as many games (59), started as many games (129) or played as many minutes (7092:00) as the workhorse Skoff.

Read Full Article: http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/sports/hockey/amateur/musketeers/musketeers-skoff-is-ushl-goaltender-of-week/article_679d377e-3368-5f15-92ae-008eb08eaff2.html - ixzz1mpqp5tXs

By: Marc Uhlmann

Twitter: @SteelDad

Website: www.steeleraddicts.com

Someone from ‘on high’ has finally spoken. Pittsburgh Steelers President Art Rooney II spoke publicly this week to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Rob Rossi in what can only be described as an effort to clear the air about what has been going on this offseason on the South Side. If everything that Mr. Rooney said is accurate then this is easily the most important time in the head coaching career of Mike Tomlin.

Mr. Rooney claims that the hiring of Todd Haley as the team’s new offensive coordinator was all Tomlin’s decision. He also said that Haley and former Indianapolis Head Coach Jim Caldwell were really the only two candidates Tomlin considered. Mr. Rooney was candid enough to admit that he really didn’t think Tomlin would hire Haley but welcomed the decision.

What is still a bit of a mystery is just who ultimately was responsible for the release of former coordinator Bruce Arians. After listening to Mr. Rooney I can only conclude that Tomlin ultimately made the decision to remove Arians just days after Tomlin said he wanted to retain all of his coaches. I also have a bridge from California to Hawaii I’d like you to buy because I’m not ‘buying’ that comment one bit.

So why is this point in Tomlin’s tenure as head coach so vital? Because the hiring of Haley brings tremendous risk and tremendous reward with it that’s why. In Haley, Tomlin now has a guy who was a former NFL head coach in his ear from the offensive side of the ball. Of course he has had this on the other side of the ball with Dick LeBeau but according to all appearances LeBeau and Haley couldn’t be more different.

Tomlin is also taking a great chance in alienating his star quarterback whose relationship with Arians is known far and wide. Should Haley and Ben Roethlisberger become oil and water it will reflect on just one guy and that guy is Tomlin.

Coach Tomlin has one thing on his side should things not go well and that’s stability. The Steelers change head coaches as often as Peter Griffin changes his underwear which is to say almost never. He can afford some down years before the Steelers start thinking of going in a different direction. They did it with Chuck Noll and they did it with Bill Cowher. Tomlin’s two Super Bowl appearances and one win will grant him plenty of time to correct mistakes.

Mr. Rooney did the right thing by making some statements publicly but there is still too much of a cloud of mystery that hangs over the team right now. Roethlisberger and Haley have yet to meet and while Mr. Rooney passed that off as “it’s just February,” that does nothing to calm my anxiety about the potential of this relationship.

For Tomlin, the NFL Scouting Combine could not be coming at a better time. It will get him and his staff out of Pittsburgh and a chance to get away from the media attention or at least some of it. Tomlin and General Manager Kevin Colbert have some serious work to do in picking the right guys with so many salary cap questions facing the team. Of course Mr. Rooney will probably have to make a statement soon regarding just who decides what players to draft. Stay tuned.

Ed Palilla

@PittsburghAce

Recent rumors have been swirling about the possibility of the Pirates trading Garrett Jones to the New York Yankees for RHP AJ Burnett. I have been hearing opinions on the radio about how “Pittsburgh HAS to make this deal” and “Why haven’t the Pirates already pulled the trigger on it?” As Lee Corso would say… Not so fast my friend. Let’s take a step back here before we get overly excited about this.

I understand that Garrett Jones is a nice utility player to have, and is well liked by most of Pittsburgh, including me. However, he is not much more than a left handed power hitter that does not have much power. If the Yankees are eager to grab him in exchange for a good pitcher, then I am all for it. Burnett still has a strong arm, a good curveball, and you can never have enough hard throwing fireballers.

However, there are a significant amount of things to consider before we put Burnett on the hill. He has started at least 32 games each of the last 4 years, so he has been consistently healthy, but hasn’t been that strong. Burnett just turned 35 last month, has not thrown over 200 innings since 2009, and is averaging only 6 innings per outing. His ERA the last 5 years has gone as such: 3.75, 4.07, 4.04, 5.26, 5.15. So in the last 2 season he has thrown less innings, and his ERA has spiked in the last 5. Not a good trend.

What this essentially means is that every time he pitches, he will only last you 6 innings and average giving up 3.5 runs every outing. Last season, the Pirates 5^th best starting pitcher by ERA was Kevin Correia with 4.79. He averaged 6 innings per start and gave up an average of 3.2 runs in those 6 innings. This is where you have to ask the question…. How much is that worth?