Penn State Men’s Hockey is dominating on the penalty kill this season after struggling while man-down in previous seasons. Ironically, one-half of the team's special teams have been successful, but the other half, the powerplay, has continued to struggle.
The biggest difference between this season and last is goaltending. Head Coach Guy Gadowsky and multiple players have continuously mentioned how much the team loves playing in front of Arsenii Sergeev, who transferred in.
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This season, the Nittany Lions are 14.3% on the powerplay, placing them 47th in the nation, but they are 96.9% on the penalty kill, which is good for third in the nation. The team also has three shorthanded goals in just seven games played, which is tied for the second most shorthanded goals, and with four fewer games played than Connecticut and three less than Arizona State and Michigan, who they are tied with, along with St. Thomas, who has played in nine games.
The penalty kill heavily relies on the goaltender. If they aren’t playing well and the opponent scores on every power play, the team would be out of luck. As much as the team tries to stay out of the box, it’s hockey; you are bound to end up in the box every now and then, and if your goalie is not good man-down, your chances of winning decrease significantly.
Last season, Liam Souliere and Noah Grannan had the worst goaltending stats in the conference and were close to the bottom as a tandem in the nation, with a .869 save percentage. Neither of them recorded a single shutout.
Gadowsky stated, “Good goaltending won’t win hockey games; you need great goaltending, which we didn’t have last season.”
The goalie is responsible for starting your breakout, and if they aren’t making the saves, there is no breakout to start, especially when man-down and you're trying to change lines. Sergeev has a .929 save percentage through seven games and a shutout in one of the seven, compared to last year, which is a step above good goaltending.
Last season, 19.7 percent on the powerplay and 76.6 percent on the penalty kill scored one shorthanded goal. In the 2022 -2023 season, they were 16 percent on the powerplay and 76.2 percent on the penalty kill and scored two shorthanded goals. They had the same goalie tandem in those two seasons; however, Souliere played significantly better in the 2022-2023 season than in the 2023-2024 season.
Gadowsky has mentioned that Juliano Pagliero spent the summer working with the players on special teams, specifically the penalty kill. The Big Ten is known as one of the hardest conferences in college hockey, with some of the best forwards in the nation, so focusing on stopping them is crucial.
If you suck on the penalty kill, you won’t win games in the Big Ten, and for the first time in a while, Penn State is not sucking on the penalty kill.
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