Penn State men’s hockey head coach Guy Gadowsky could use a few more finishes that he got from his captains Dane Dowiak and Reese Laubach that he got from last weekend’s series against Minnesota.
What he could use even more is a chance to see what his team does with a lead long enough to take it into an intermission. Penn State had three leads Saturday in Minneapolis. None lasted four minutes.
That’s the tension Penn State brings home to Pegula Ice Arena for this weekend’s series against Notre Dame.
The Nittany Lions took three of six Big Ten points on the road against the 18th-ranked Gophers.
They spent much of Friday chasing one goal and much of Saturday discovering how hard it was to make one stand up. Gadowsky had a blunt answer when asked whether he’d gotten a look at the Irish.
“We got a lot of issues.”
Start with what went right. Down a goal after two periods Friday, Penn State had a goaltender who had given his teammates time to find an equalizer. Josh Fleming made 35 saves, five of them in an overtime in which Minnesota outshot Penn State 5-0. He still had enough left to stop four of five in the shootout.
“I thought Friday night he was so good and stopped many dangerous shots in the game,” Gadowsky said of Fleming.
The play that rewarded Fleming started with a puck Justin Larose kept in the offensive zone. Justin Poirier beat Di Pasquo to the short side from the left circle at 9:03 of the third. For all the attention the captains deserved for the finish, a freshman keeping a possession alive was what gave them a chance to earn the extra conference point after a 1-1 tie.
“You see the comeback. You see them keep pressing. They were working,” Gadowsky said. “They were managing emotions and to see it go in was great.”
Turn the score around and managing emotions gets interesting. Nolan Collins put Penn State ahead 81 seconds into Saturday’s game. Marco Mignosa made it 2-1 later in the first period. Dowiak made it 3-2 early in the second. Jackson Smith assisted on all three goals, a pretty good night’s work for a defenseman whose team nevertheless went to both intermissions tied. Minnesota’s Christian Humphreys answered the last two leads himself.
In overtime, Minnesota needed all of 17 seconds for LJ Mooney to end it, 4-3.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“The face-off is huge and hey, that’s what happened,” Gadowsky said. “We have work to do there too.”
There’s a lesson in those 17 seconds for a team that has won 54% of its faceoffs through eight games. Penn State can reasonably like its chances at the dot.
It can also spend a practice on what the other two skaters do when a three-on-three draw goes the other way. Fleming faced six overtime shots across the weekend. Minnesota’s goalies faced none.
Notre Dame offers a chance to do something about those leads.
The Irish come in 2-6 and have lost all five games in which their opponent scored first. Both victories came when they took a lead into the third period. Getting the opener at home would give the Roar Zone something to work with. Getting through the next shift with that lead would give Gadowsky more reason to believe the trip to Minnesota changed something.
Penn State should get a look on the power play, too. Notre Dame has surrendered 14 goals in 37 times shorthanded. The Nittany Lions went scoreless on three chances against Minnesota.
With trips to Michigan and Wisconsin coming up, these are two home games in which a clean entry and a second shot off a rebound could be worth points the Nittany Lions will want later. They already know what one puck kept in the zone can do. Larose bought them nearly eleven more minutes of regulation to play on even terms Friday.
Gadowsky called Laubach and Dowiak “extremely tough kids” and spoke of their “warrior mentalities.”
On Friday, both had the touch to beat a goalie with a conference point riding on the outcome. This weekend, I’d watch the two captains after somebody else scores. Minnesota answered Mignosa in a minute and 46 seconds.
When Penn State gets Pegula on its feet against Notre Dame, the shift immediately after the celebration is the one I want to see.
