Penn State junior forward Chase McLane finally made his season debut against No. 1 Minnesota. McLane suffered a lower-body injury against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish toward the end of last year that sidelined him for the rest of the season.
The offense was gelling perfectly and all four lines were scoring, but McLane's presence was certainly missed.
“He worked extremely hard, but everybody knew we would. It is nice to have him not in a red jersey where you can't touch him.” head coach Guy Gadowsky said.
As a centerman, McLane has been in the top three in faceoffs for the Nittany Lions since his Freshman season when he posted a 50.4% win percentage and a 52.7% his sophomore season.
“My biggest thing was to try to be simple and not try to do too much and nine months is a long, long time to be away from it,” McLane said.
In his first game back against Minnesota, he won 7 of the 11 draws he took bringing in a 64% win rate. Penn State leads the Big Ten in faceoffs with a .557.
“Ture [Linden] has actually been the only real successful guy on the right-hand side,” Gadowsky said.
While McLane was injured, transfer senior Ture Linden became the main faceoff guy on the right-hand side with a 60% success rate, whereas Danny Dzhaniyev, Xander Lamppa and Ben Schoen have been stronger on the left circle
“Well, it was just a mindset of timing. Another thing is practice, practice, practice, like after practice to get the other centers to do some timing stuff.” McLane said.
At 6’2” and 183 lbs McLane made his presence known in his glass-breaking hit to Minnesotas’ Logan Cooley, making college hockey news
As his teammates would describe him, “He's definitely a more physical guy as we can tell. You can see well he's very good defensively.” Connor MacEachern said.
McLane’s defensive play was already noticeable in his season debut with his hit but his forechecks were strong and caused turnovers leading to crucial shot attempts.
McLane had a noticeable presence and is expected to boost the Nittany Lions faceoffs this season and bring an aggressive style of play to the ice.
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