Penn State men’s hockey was taught a lesson in work ethic in defeat to Michigan
Guy Gadowsky’s opening statement was simply six words.
And in those six words, Penn State’s men’s hockey coach was able to encapsulate a full 60 minutes of play.
Sixty minutes during which his team got dominated.
“We got beat in every way,” Gadowsky said.
No. 6 Penn State was outclassed in every facet of the game on Friday night in a 6-0 defeat to Michigan at Pegula Ice Arena.
And for Gadowsky, this defeat, which was the most lopsided loss for the program since 2016, came down to his team’s work ethic — something that his team could control.
“In this night specifically, one team was prepared to compete at a much higher level than the other,” Gadowsky said. “In this game, when you are prepare to compete at a high level, usually those things do go your way, and the truth is whatever level we were prepared to compete at tonight, Michigan was prepared to do that at least twice as hard as we were.”
Michigan skated circles around Penn State throughout much of the contest, winning the race to nearly every loose puck.
The Wolverines dominated play in the neutral zone with their forecheck, causing havoc all night for Penn State.
For much of the 60 minutes, the Nittany Lions struggled to string passes together and defensive turnovers gave Michigan numerous scoring opportunities.
Despite this, Penn State only trailed by one goal after the first period, which had much to do with the play of netminder Peyton Jones.
“It could have easily been four or five (goals),” Gadowsky said. “He was exceptional and that’s what makes this loss even harder.
“It’s not because we had some goals slip through, we had several great saves, probably many that you shouldn’t save, and I feel bad that we wasted it.”
But then, in the words of Penn State defender Kris Myllari, the floodgates opened.
Michigan poured on four goals in the third period, including two in a span of 59 seconds that made it a 4-0 game.
This caused Gadowsky to use a timeout, a timeout that was meant to get his team back on the right track emotionally — a timeout that could’ve sparked a comeback with 12 minutes left
Ultimately it didn’t change anything for Penn State.
“I think his message was like ‘hit the reset here,’ like he could tell they were starting to get some momentum and ‘let’s get back and play our game,’ ” Myllari said. “Whether this game ends 10-0 or we come back and tie it, let’s set the tone for tomorrow that we are here to compete. It was kind of our final wake-up call.”
This wake-up call wasn’t received and Penn State continued to get outworked and outcompeted.
And for Gadowsky, that is alarming.
“This isn’t what Penn Staters are used to. We’ve lost before many times in this building but not because we got outcompeted and outworked,” Gadowsky said. “That is something we are not at all comfortable with and we are very disappointed.”
Now Penn State is left searching for answers, answers that can’t come through drills, a session in the weight room or from watching film.
The answers to increasing work ethic and competitiveness have to come from within. And, according to Myllari, Penn State won’t even have to address the issue in the locker room.
“We got a lot of pride in that locker room and a lot of very competitive hockey players and I think they will internally everyone is going to go home, look in the mirror and they are going to come with their best effort,” Myllari said. “I think that is something that once you get to this level of hockey guys can do internally a lot and you rally around guys doing it.”
Penn State was taught a lesson on Friday night, a lesson on what happens when it doesn’t show up ready to play.
It is a lesson that needs to be received — quickly — because things are only going to get harder for Penn State from here.
The now-second in the Big Ten Nittany Lions have critical road series against Ohio State and Michigan State, combined with two home series against Notre Dame and Minnesota left on their schedule.
There are no easy nights in the Big Ten, and if Penn State wants to accomplish its lofty goals of a conference championship and a program-first Frozen Four appearance, it needs a change in mindset starting Saturday.
“Great hockey teams learn from these and they move on. These are the lessons you learn if you want to be a Frozen Four hockey team,” Myllari said. “I think that consistency of coming out for 60 minutes, and especially coming out early in the first, ready to roll and outwork that team and get to our game plan is something that we have to work on and do more often.”
This story was originally published January 18, 2020 at 12:28 AM.
