Injuries hampering Penn State hockey team

It was a tall order for the Penn State men’s hockey team.

The Nittany Lions had to go to one of the toughest arenas to play, against a traditional power that is always difficult to beat, to win on an ice sheet where they had never won. And, by the way, they had to do it without a full complement of forwards.

But somehow Penn State skated away with a weekend split at Minnesota.

It was the first win in program history in Mariucci Arena, and just the second for a visiting Big Ten team since the conference officially began sanctioning hockey in three seasons, joining Michigan State last year.

“It says a lot,” coach Guy Gadowsky said Monday at the team’s weekly media session. “I thought that was a tremendous win. It is a tough place to win, it is a tough team to win against, regardless of where you are.”

Penn State lost 4-1 Friday before bouncing back with a 5-3 win Saturday.

The hardest part was playing both games without 12 forwards.

Each game, teams set a lineup, usually, of four lines of three forwards each and three pairings of defensemen. On Friday, they began with just 11 and by the end had only 10 healthy forwards.

It meant plenty of line shuffling.

“You have to give a lot of credit to our centers,” freshman forward Matt Mendelson said. “Guys that double-shifted and took extra ice time. It’s obviously very tiring but they did a great job with it.”

In addition to being a test to their conditioning, and mentally staying in tune because there wasn’t a consistent rotation, it also was a test of their chemistry. A lot of lines stick together for weeks, or much of the season, but they at least have a lot of practice time to work together and have a feel where teammates would tend to be.

“We all play the same system,” Mendelson said. “We know what our team goals are, and if everyone sticks to that, we should be able to play with anybody on any shift.”

The team may experience much of the same this weekend, when it visits Michigan State on Friday and Saturday. Gadowsky said Monday that defenseman Erik Autio and forwards Alec Marsh and Curtis Loik are day-to-day with injuries, and forward Dylan Richard is out. Loik and Marsh were both hurt last weekend and Richard missed both games. The team also is missing James Robinson, who has been sidelined since the season opener.

Plus, there was the added obstacle of Andrew Sturtz serving a one-game suspension Friday from the Big Ten for a hit against Michigan the previous weekend.

Gadowsky also said he would prefer to stick with juggling lines and not move an extra defenseman up to play forward. They will adjust practice schedules this week, giving them an extra day off, and try to keep shifts short when they meet the Spartans.

One thing the team ran into twice last weekend was too-many-men-on-the-ice penalties. Gadowsky took the blame for that Monday, saying he usually has the bench organized better but “we let it slide over time.”

Even with the depleted forces, it’s a better situation than what the team dealt with two seasons ago, when injuries hit the defensemen so hard, they only had four healthy blue-liners for some games and had to shift Kenny Brooks back to defense for a time.

“It’s not ideal,” Gadowsky said of being shorthanded among forwards. “It’s definitely easier than when you have those injuries on (defense).”

One for Matt

One of the happiest Nittany Lions walking out of Mariucci Arena on Saturday night was Mendelson, who scored his first collegiate goal. The Pittsburgh native had scored 30 goals and 39 assists in 119 career games in the USHL, but it took 17 games this season to get the first as a Lion.

“It definitely was good to get the monkey off my back,” Mendelson said. “I had a lot of chances throughout the year that probably should have (gone) in before that.”

Mendelson has had several near-misses, hitting posts or missing an open net with the goalie out of position. He finally cashed in knocking in a rebound in the first period.

“I figured if I kept playing the game the right way,” Mendelson said, “and keeping it simple, playing smart, playing like a good teammate, it would come eventually.”

National rankings

Penn State remained No. 16 in the U.S. College Hockey Online poll. In the national team statistics, the Lions are fifth in offense (3.86 goals per game), have dropped to 37th in defense (3.00 goals allowed), are eighth in power plays (24.30 percent) and 22nd in penalty killing (84 percent). They also lead the nation in shorthanded goals scored (10).

This story was originally published February 8, 2016 at 9:58 PM with the headline "Injuries hampering Penn State hockey team."