Mental toughness the difference as Penn State men’s hockey falls to Notre Dame in packed Pegula
A night after some bounces of the puck were the difference between a regulation win and a tie, followed by a shootout loss, Penn State was challenged mentally, leaving the Nittany Lions unprepared and searching for answers Saturday night.
In front of a record-setting crowd at Pegula Ice Arena, Penn State struggled with mental toughness in a 4-2 loss to Notre Dame, handing the Nittany Lions their second winless weekend in the past three weeks.
“This one hurts for a couple of reasons,” coach Guy Gadowsky said. “One because it was such an amazing crowd and it looked so good, and we just weren’t mentally prepared at the start.
“We weren’t mentally prepared for a great game. We weren’t mentally prepared to compete. The other team had plans and we didn’t match their mental toughness at the start and we paid for it.”
And at the heart of this struggle with mental toughness was the Nittany Lions’ effort on the defensive end of the ice.
Notre Dame jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period after a slew of communication errors and outworking the Nittany Lions on the defensive end of the ice.
“I think in the first they really outworked us down low,” defenseman Paul DeNaples said. “I mean we play a man-to-man system and they cycled the puck and wore us down.
“We were able to have a good second but they were able to capitalize on all their bounces on chip pucks out and odd-man rushes.”
Notre Dame’s game-winning goal came on a stretch pass where Graham Slaggert found himself behind the Penn State defense with five minutes left in the game.
The Fighting Irish were able to capitalize on the aggressive play style of the Nittany Lions, and make them pay. But Gadowsky says this shouldn’t happen.
“I think what they exploited is individually not being ready for it,” Gadowsky said. “I don’t think it is a systematic it was individual breakdowns, mental breakdowns, not positioning.
“Just not sharp enough. If we are doing what we are supposed to do those things don’t happen.”
For DeNaples, it is a simple problem of execution, something the Nittany Lions need to improve and need to improve quickly.
“We are trying to play very aggressively, it’s our style of play,” DeNaples said. “High risk, high reward kind of hockey right now. So we have to be better at execution and better at the plays we are making.
“We have to make sure it is 100 percent, not going 50-50 on that.”
Penn State’s offense wasn’t immune from the struggles though as the Nittany Lions were only able to post 25 shots on Friday night, well below their average of 38 coming into the game.
The Nittany Lions often struggled to make the final pass and in general looked disorganized on the offensive end of the ice as Notre Dame was able to control the puck for much of the night.
This loss may have also exposed some bigger mental problems that Penn State is facing.
Penn State’s system simply is getting pucks to the net, crashing the net and using a defender to cycle this puck and generate these chances.
It is fast paced and aggressive.
But the system is much more complicated than simply shooting the puck, and right now Gadowsky isn’t seeing his team buy into it and he isn’t seeing every single person compete at the highest level he thinks they can night in and night out.
“I guarantee you tonight they had a much higher percentage of their parts that were 100 percent in on their game,” Gadowsky said. “So that’s how I feel.”
Penn State earned one of a possible six point Big Ten points this weekend at home, a concerning fact as the Nittany Lions look to hold on to their top spot in the conference.
And for Gadowsky, the solution is simple.
He needs his team to compete at 100 percent every night, but how he delivers this message to his team is not as simple.
“I think in every given night we have about 80 percent that are doing it and the other 20 percent are hoping that the other 80 percent will make up for them, and it’s not enough,” Gadowsky said. “Not now. The stakes are raised. In this league the stakes are raised and you are not going to win that way.”
