Nov. 11, 2013
By Jackson Thibodeau, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State women's hockey team dropped a pair of nail-biters to Syracuse at home over the weekend, but in doing so--the student-athletes displayed a capability to compete at an extremely high intensity level.
"Certainly it is tough to lose those close ones," said head coach Josh Brandwene, "but sometimes you do all the right things and you just don't get the results you want. I have to tell you, it was a playoff atmosphere out there for both teams."
The Nittany Lions fell short by just a single goal in each game, dropping Saturday's contest 2-1 and Sunday's battle 4-3 in overtime. In each of the showdowns, both teams competed with so much heart it was as if the entire season was on the line.
"There was just an intensity and a consistency on the part of both teams and it was just so close all the way through," Brandwene said. "That's what great league play is all about."
The Blue and White demonstrated improvement in multiple areas all over the ice. From a successful penalty kill to a balanced offence--the young team competed at what looked like late-season form.
Following a scoreless series last weekend against Robert Morris, Brandwene emphasized resilience and a focus on improving on key fundamental areas of the game.
On Saturday and Sunday Penn State showed that they improved on much more than that. The Nittany Lions executed the timing of their line changes far better than they had in any other game to this point.
The performances of goaltenders Nicole Paniccia and Celine Whitlinger were phenomenal. The duo combined for 89 saves on the weekend as Paniccia turned away 38 pucks and allowed just one goal on Saturday and Whitlinger stopped 51 shots on Sunday.
"Celine played out of her mind [Sunday]," said freshman forward Amy Petersen, who registered an assist on Saturday and scored a clutch third period power play goal on Sunday. "We knew as a team that she had our back out there."
The Orange outshot the Nittany Lions, 94-41, in the series, but somehow the goal differential was just two goals in favor of the visitors. How exactly did this happen? Good puck possession/control and a higher quality of scoring chances rather than just quantity.
"I feel really good about the scoring chances we created," said Brandwene. "We had some great puck movement down low and a couple of odd rushes. The process is good...the results will come."
Even for a team that prides itself on resilience and a "nothing to lose, something to prove" mentality, two right-down-to-the-wire losses like this are hard to shake off--but that won't stop them from moving forward.
"Obviously everyone is pretty upset and we will be upset for a little while but we will shake it off and get back out there next weekend," said senior captain Taylor Gross.
Brandwene expressed that he was pleased with the team's ability to stick to their assignments and not waiver from their game plans all weekend. It is these key takeaways that will help the team move forward as they approach the midway point of the season.
"The difficult challenge for us as competitors is to be disappointed, but to build on the growth and that's really our mission moving forward here," Brandwene said. "There was a tremendous amount of growth for our young hockey team over these past seven days."
Their series with Syracuse capped off an eight-game home stand and the Nittany Lions will be on the road for two-straight weekends until they host Maine on Nov. 30.
Next weekend Brandwene's squad will travel to Rochester to take on RIT on Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m.