Penn State men’s hockey reflects on first-ever regular season Big Ten championship
As Kevin Wall celebrated his game-winning goal against Minnesota on Feb. 22, he didn’t know it would be one of the biggest goals in the history of Penn State’s young hockey program.
In fact, after the game, the freshman said he simply knew “it gave his team the lead.” But after a weekend full of results going the Nittany Lions’ way, Penn State is the regular-season Big Ten champion for the first time in program history.
“It means that there are a whole lot of people doing the right things,” coach Guy Gadowsky said. “From the administration to the staff, to the players, to everybody, to the alumni, to the Roar Zone. It means that we are developing a really good program. So there are a lot of people that should be really proud of that.”
But it was far from a perfect season for Penn State, in fact the Nittany Lions had to learn a lot about themselves before the program could take this next step.
And despite Gadowsky feeling like he learned lessons from previous teams that he could apply to this experienced team, he quickly learned that this wasn’t the case.
“We learned a lot of lessons last year and I just assumed that we could just transfer those lessons onto this team, and then we would be there, and that didn’t happen,” Gadowsky said. “It just wasn’t the case at all. We needed to learn different lessons. That’s the takeaway. We are very talented but we had some real low valleys.
“The lessons that we learned the year before didn’t apply, and from a coaching standpoint that’s what our coaching staff has learned.”
Ultimately, learning these lessons were the difference for Penn State as the Nittany Lions finished the season with more points than the rest of the conference in the 24-game schedule.
Penn State featured its fair share of slumps and its wake-up calls about the talent level in the Big Ten throughout the season, but the Nittany Lions always managed to find a way out of these valleys, and not let them derail the team.
A good example of this is the January slump that Penn State has experienced in previous seasons. But this year, the Nittany Lions managed to do just enough and get the points they needed in crucial moments.
“Obviously we had that kind of Christmas skid, and that was kind of our focus coming in and in the past we’ve had a losing record,” defenseman Cole Hults said. “I think we did a pretty good job and stuck with it and I think right now we are playing our best hockey. I know most Big Ten teams don’t want to play us right now, and that’s a good feeling to have.”
Penn State wasn’t swept in a single Big Ten series this season, something that is far easier said than done in the most competitive conference in college hockey.
“In a league like this you aren’t going to waltz through every weekend. It’s just impossible,” Gadowsky said. “That’s why we feel so good about this because I don’t think in this league it’s possible, especially this year, to just go waltzing through. I think that is why we feel so good about it.”
Hults, though, was also quick to point out that this program first wasn’t just something that this team accomplished, it was something that resulted from the winning culture that the program has quickly developed.
“The guys before us paved the way, so you have to give those guys credit, too,” Hults said. “Biro said it during a video that it is just as much there’s as ours, so they started building a culture. We did it at a pretty rapid rate. It’s a pretty proud accomplishment.”
Even as a freshman, Wall recognizes the lessons that the program has learned this season, but ultimately it was a simple reason that this was the year Penn State was able to take the next step and be the best team in the conference.
“If we played Penn State hockey, which is short shifts, shoot first mentality and a bunch of other stuff, we’re going to get the results we want,” Wall said. “I think we’ve seen that throughout our season, with a couple big sweeps — Wisconsin, Minnesota — and if we stray away from our game, we don’t get the results we want. So what we learned this year is just play Penn State hockey and things are going to pan out.”
And while Penn State is taking time to appreciate its accomplishments, the Nittany Lions’ season is far from over.
Penn State has another week off this weekend before preparing for the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament, and the Nittany Lions are hungry to lift another trophy.
“I think this year has been pretty successful in a way, but also not as productive as we had hoped. So it is kind of give and take,” forward Alex Limoges said. “Right now we’re happy with the trophy but we want a Big Ten tournament championship again.”
