Cole Hults’ ‘pro mentality’ culminates in 4-point weekend for Penn State men’s hockey
Cole Hults skated at the Big Ten logo in the middle of the ice at Munn Ice Arena.
His stick found the puck and blasted it toward the net, the goalie made the save and the puck bounced right to the stick of teammate Connor McMenamin, who buried it.
Penn State celebrated its overtime win over Michigan State, and it was Hults’ fourth point of the weekend as the junior scored or assisted on every goal for the Nittany Lions in a weekend where Penn State desperately needed a win.
“We got some good bounces,” Hults said. “I was just trying to play my game and I got a lot of good bounces this weekend. And I thought we all played a steady game, and things were coming to us a little more this weekend than before.”
In Friday night’s game against the Spartans, Hults scored Penn State’s opening goal and later assisted a goal late in the third period in a 4-2 loss.
Then in Saturday night’s victory, Hults had a pair of assists, including the big one in overtime on the game-winning goal.
Hults, a Los Angeles Kings prospect, is now in his third season at Penn State and is having a career-best season.
The Wisconsin native leads the Big Ten in points for a defenseman with 24, including five goals.
And Hults has been able to achieve these numbers without giving an inch on the defensive side of the ice, as he has a team-best plus-17 goal differential when he is out on the ice.
Despite Hults putting up the best numbers of his career, coach Guy Gadowsky doesn’t see that much of a difference between the junior now than when he arrived in State College two years ago.
“It doesn’t look a lot different because he is such a consistent, non-flashy, high-performing, low-risk guy and his points are just a by-product of high-quality hockey,” Gadowsky said. “Just look at what he has done in the league. He just consistently makes high-level plays.
“That’s probably the biggest compliment is that his highest end isn’t that much different than his low.”
Hults entered the Penn State program already as a very polished player and has spent the past two seasons continuing to refine and work on the little things in his game.
In fact, Gadowsky remembers Hults asking him when he first arrived what he could work on, a question that Gadowsky didn’t know how to answer.
“The answer was ‘when I see it, I’ll tell you. Just do what you’ and I think he does what he does,” Gadowsky said. “He has just sort of gotten a little bit better at everything. I don’t think he has to change anything.”
The one area where Gadowsky feels that Hults has improved the most, however, is his mental approach to the game and using his “pro mentality” to improve himself more than just physically.
“I think he’s grown like most freshman to upperclassmen grow in terms of he has always had a pro mentality, in terms of taking care of himself, his body, his nutrition, his training, but I think it is a natural growth to do that at a high level in the Big Ten,” Gadowsky said. “Every day in-and-out against some of the very best and most talented college players in the nation. It’s just a natural progression.”
It’s a progression that Hults has also noticed in himself.
“It is also just a whole confidence thing,” Hults said. “I’m a junior now so I’ve been there, I’ve been here there is nothing new to me anymore.
“I think it just got easier to play my game so I kind of figured out how to prepare and play my games so that is probably the biggest change for me.”
And now, Hults’ younger teammates have taken notice of the mental approach he brings to the game.
“I mean before the games you can always tell that he is dialed in,” McMenamin said. “He always has the same pregame routine. He cares a lot.
“I think just his approach to how he handles games and practices day in and day out, on and off the ice. It’s second to none, so I think that is a big part of what makes him special.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2020 at 3:48 PM.
