Nittany Lions happy to get Saar back in lineup

It was a scene Penn State hockey fans had seen plenty of times last season.

With the Nittany Lions skating on a power play, the puck was played from along the boards to between the faceoff circles. A Penn State forward was drifting through the slot with his stick cocked back to unleash a one-timer at the net.

The puck hits the net, the goal horn blares and the student section goes delirious with joy.

However, the scene Friday night was not for the goal-scorer wearing a No. 25 jersey, but a No. 17.

Zach Saar picked up his first goal of the season Friday in an 8-2 thumping of Sacred Heart, and the score looked a lot like what the team did frequently last season with Casey Bailey.

“Bailey and Saar are both just lethal when they get a good pass,” said junior forward David Goodwin, who was a linemate with the team’s top scorer last season. “There’s tons of similarities. It feels like I’m out there with Bailey again.”

Bailey left the team a year early for the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, and while there has actually been an increase in overall team scoring this season, with exactly the same record (6-2-2) through 10 games as last year, the Nittany Lions have been missing that cannon of a slap shot on the power play.

Saar was happy to provide the artillery.

“His presence on the halfwall … the other teams just respect it so much,” Goodwin said. “He has such a powerful shot. It just opens everything else for us.”

Saar was glad to get the goal, but he was just as happy to give credit to Goodwin, David Glen and Luke Juha, who all helped set up the play.

“Everyone wants to get fired up because I leaned into a slap shot on a perfect pass,” Saar said. “(Goodwin’s) unbelievable. He’s such a good hockey player.”

In other words, the pass was so good, it was up to Saar not to mess it up?

“It was also mine to frickin’ blow through the net,” he grinned.

Saar suffered an “upper body” injury during preseason practices, so last weekend marked his debut. His 6-foot-6, 225-pound frame makes him a big object to move when he plants himself in front of the goalie, and he knows how to use his size to his advantage. But he’s not necessarily a big-time scorer, with just five goals and seven assists in 39 career games. He’s also had a number of injury issues over the years.

But he certainly doesn’t shy from contact, and there were a few times last weekend it almost seemed he was seeking to deliver a good hit, especially early.

“For me a lot of times, the game starts, I’ve got to get in a good hit,” Saar said. “Get actively engaged. It’s one of those tough lines, I take that edge away, I’m not myself.”

He said it’s in his blood. His father, Brad, was once a linebacker at Penn State and Ball State, and played briefly for the Indianapolis Colts.

“My dad was an NFL linebacker,” Saar said. “I can’t really fall too far from the tree.”

Despite having several lines that have been meshing well and producing goals, coach Guy Gadowsky still managed to find a good combination of linemates for Saar with Ricky DeRosa and Tommy Olczyk.

But the pleasant surprise was how well it worked throwing him in on the power play unit.

Having Saar skating through the slot and unloading a cannon like Bailey made it look a lot easier Friday night.

“For someone that hasn’t played with that unit at all,” Gadowsky said, “I thought he fit in pretty well.”

The long road

The Nittany Lions played eight of their first 10 games of the season at home, with the other two in the Buffalo, N.Y., area, a mere 3 ½-hour bus trip away.

Now it’s time for some serious travel, with games at Alaska-Anchorage at 11 p.m. (State College time) Friday and Saturday. The team travels on commercial flights to The Last Frontier on Wednesday, and it will be a tough adjustment for body clocks.

Everyone has been given instructions on how to handle the trip by the training staff, including getting quality sleep and plenty of fluids before they even got to this week.

“(We can’t) allow the travel, the tedious travel, to be an excuse for anything,” Goodwin said. “We can’t allow the travel to hinder our performance in any way.”

The games were set up a few years ago, and there was an assumption Bailey would still be with the team for his senior season and a trip to his hometown. The Lions hope to still see the Bailey family there.

The Nittany Lions also will have to adjust to playing on the Olympic-size ice sheet of Sullivan Arena in Anchorage. The rink is 200-by-100 feet, not the 200-by-85 dimensions of Pegula Ice Arena.

Goodwin said he likes it because it gives the forwards more room to skate and create, and the team has to make the same adjustment when they travel to Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Sick days

Freshman forward Matt Mendelson left practice early because of an illness that is making its way through the team. Freshman Alec Marsh also missed practice, and he and Curtis Loik are anticipated to miss Tuesday’s session as well.

With a long day of travel in an airplane with re-circulated air on Wednesday, the Nittany Lions have their fingers crossed.

“I’m putting my head in the sand and hoping it goes away,” Gadowsky joked.

This story was originally published November 17, 2015 at 12:26 PM with the headline "Nittany Lions happy to get Saar back in lineup."