Pat Gallen of Philly.com and Ben Curley, Knights goalie, went one-on-one at IceWorks.

Pat Gallen, host of philly.com’s Pat vs. Philly series, laced up his skates and took to the ice at IceWorks Skating Complex against some of Neumann University’s ice hockey players. And, to the surprise of the players and spectators, Gallen held his own.

“I had played hockey about 14 years ago. I certainly need some work, but I’m just glad I didn’t fall on my face,” he joked.

	Dominick Dawes, Knights head coach, gives Gallen some tips while a Philly.com videographer records the session.

Over the past year, the Pat vs. Philly series has had Gallen playing H.O.R.S.E. with the Temple University Women’s Basketball team, learning the art of taking and saving penalty kicks from Philadelphia Union goalie Zac MacMath, and cradling the lacrosse stick with players from the Philadelphia Wings.

The concept for the series is to try different sports in the Philadelphia region. Some Gallen has played before and at others he’s a complete rookie. The idea is to find out just how good the best local professional and amateur athletes are at their respective sports - especially when compared to an average fan.

“We do local teams in the area. We’re trying to do more colleges, and we’ve done some high schools, too,” Gallen said.

When the idea of going against an ice hockey team came up, it was Gallen’s editor Lou Rabito who recommended Neumann. “We were talking about the good (hockey) schools in the area and Lou suggested Neumann University,” Gallen said.

Neumann Men’s Hockey Coach Dominick Dawes was eager to have Gallen skate against his players.  He enlisted goalie Ben Curley, forwards Zac Lazzaro and Anthony Pino. And to make sure that Gallen could “skate like a girl” Zoe Harkins, forward for the women’s ice hockey team, also skated.

The players did skating drills against Gallen, and Curley took several shots on goal from the reporter. Gallen strapped a camera on his chest while he was skating to get additional video footage. At one point during the drills, the camera was strapped to Curley as Gallen attempted several shots at the goalie.

“It was fun. The kids were excellent and Zoe was great. She really could hang with the guys,” said Gallen.

The Pat vs. Philly Neumann University video is expected to appear on the philly.com website in mid-February.