Ice

Team USA is accomplishing something truly memorable in this World Cup of Hockey tournament, even if there is scant evidence that anyone out there has noticed. Miracle on Ice? That was a bunch of college-level guys playing other college-level guys, except when they upset the Soviets. That also was, as subsequent U.S. Olympic teams have proved, something of a fluke, although it did raise the game's American profile and set some of the current U.S. stars on their course to the NHL. This could be just as important, in its own way. This tournament is, as American winger Keith Tkachuk said last night after contributing a hat trick to a meaningless 9-3 bludgeoning of Slovakia, "The best of the best, right here.

You're welcome, Pittsburgh. Thanks to a mystifyingly listless effort against the New York Rangers last night, the Flyers will have to open the playoffs in Pittsburgh, of all places. They dropped to the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference, while the idle Penguins completed a surge from nowhere to the fourth seed and home-ice advantage. In short, this is about as bad a scenario as the Flyers could have conjured for themselves. "It's probably my fault," coach John Stevens said after his team blew a third-period lead to lose, 4-3, to a Rangers team with nothing to play for. "Nothing for me ever comes easy.

By winning Game 2 Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center, the New Jersey Devils officially snatched home-ice advantage away from the Flyers. Oh, well. There was a time, not so long ago, that would have seemed ominous. There would be stories about the Flyers' need to go to Newark and get the home advantage back as quickly as possible. It would seem puzzling that the Flyers could have been beaten in Philadelphia, with the emotional support provided by a packed house of orange-clad crazies.

Shaking a video machine in a restaurant proved to be a fatal mistake for Jarrett Fogle. Yesterday, Michael Stephens, 31, of 22nd Street near Somerset, North Philadelphia, was ordered to stand trial in the fatal ice pick stabbing of Fogle on May 4 outside a restaurant at Chadwick and Cumberland streets. During a preliminary hearing before Municipal Judge Francis P. Cosgrove, an 18-year-old woman testified that Stephens had asked Fogle to stop shaking the machine, but Fogle refused and said, "You're not going to do nothing to me. " Once the two were outside, Fogle tried to strike Stephens with a tree branch, the witness said.

Elizabeth Tumolo, who cofounded Rita's Water Ice Franchise Corp. on a Bensalem porch front 15 years ago and watched it expand to nine states, died Friday of complications from a fall. She was 70. Mrs. Tumolo and her son, Robert, started the business in 1984 with used equipment as a way to earn extra money. Today, the family-owned firm with the distinctive red-and-white-striped awnings has 225 franchises throughout the northeast and southeast United States, according to Robert Tumolo, Rita's president and director of operations.

Peter Forsberg is expected to make his preseason debut as a Flyer on Friday or Saturday. Yesterday, he finally stepped onto the ice with his new teammates. Forsberg, who had an infected bursa sac removed from his right ankle, will have the ankle examined Friday by orthopedic surgeon Keith Wapner at Pennsylvania Hospital. If all goes well, Forsberg should play either Friday night at the Meadowlands against the New Jersey Devils or Saturday in Washington against the Capitals.

The historic victory had just been put on ice. Now, it was time for two-way tackle James Tyler, of Roxborough, to put the ice on his coach. "Geez, I was looking right at him," said Cliff Hubbard, who has been coaching the Indians for 23 seasons. "I was thinking, 'Why's he holding that ice?' . . . Then I got it. " In more ways than one. Tyler's purpose in dousing his coach was to celebrate a 29-0 pasting of host Central, one that enabled Roxborough to claim the second playoff spot in Division B of the Public League.

Pending administration of last rites, everything is set for the return of Mark Howe to the Flyers' lineup tonight. "Not too good," said Howe after yesterday's skate, when asked how he felt. Teammates, who are accustomed to more upbeat health reports from Grandma than they get from Howe, take this to mean that after 26 days and 10 games, the Flyers' star defenseman is raring to go. Actually, he is and he isn't. Howe never really wanted to come out of the lineup, but having invested the time (and six Flyers losses)

The parade of retro treats marches on. And this summer it seems the foodie hipster scene has declared shaved ice is the hot "new" old way to stay — and be — cool. "We have lines. People are really excited about it," says David Carrell, one of the operators of the New York City-based People's Pops, which specializes in shaved ice, along with ice pops, both made with fresh fruits and herbs. Carrell, also a coauthor of the new People's Pops cookbook containing 55 ice pop and shaved ice recipes, thinks shaved ice is just on the cusp of becoming a mainstream phenomenon.

The parade of retro treats marches on. And this summer it seems the foodie hipster scene has declared shaved ice is the hot "new" old way to stay - and be - cool. "We have lines. People are really excited about it," says David Carrell, one of the operators of the New York City-based People's Pops, which specializes in shaved ice, along with ice pops, both made with fresh fruits and herbs. Carrell, also a coauthor of the new People's Pops cookbook containing 55 ice pop and shaved ice recipes, thinks shaved ice is on the verge of becoming a mainstream phenomenon.