Oct. 18, 2015
By Maria Canales, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. ââ'¬" After struggling to find its momentum during a Friday night loss to Notre Dame, Penn State came back with a fighting spirit to knock off the Irish Saturday, 5-3.
Notre Dame (1-1-0) gave Penn State (2-1-0) a challenging start to their home game slate, but the Nittany Lions were ready for the task in front of a boisterous home crowd.
Head coach Guy Gadowsky was impressed with how well his team handled the pressure from Notre Dame, an opponent Penn State has never faced in prior seasons. Gadowsky noted that veterans stepping up and leading the team came as a source of stability this weekend.
Senior forward Kenny Brooks stood out with his three assists on Saturday. The stat propelled Brooks into the top spot on the team for assists through the first two weeks.
"When he's playing well and moving his feet, getting pucks on net he has that ability to produce offensively," said Gadowsky.
In Gadowsky's mind, many players stepped up in attempts to overcome the loss of Friday night. Junior forward Dylan Richard made an impression on the coaching staff for his selfless efforts during Saturday's game.
"I think a lot of them [stepped up]," said Gadowsky. "I think one thing that was really nice to see, I don't know if you saw at the end Dylan Richard, you know you're on a power play and they pull the goalie that's a great opportunity to get a goal and for him to work as hard as he did and then come off the ice, he could have easily stayed on and probably gotten the puck and easily scored a goal."
Gadowsky credits this sort of leadership, as something the team consistently needs in order to feed off of for the rest of the season.
"I think he showed a ton of leadership by coming off and changing for a fresh guy, which was Curtis Loik, who had fresh legs, who got a goal," said Gadowsky. "It's really encouraging to the coaching staff to see that kind of selfless play for the team."
Eamon McAdam spent all 60 minutes in net for the Nittany Lions on Saturday. His poise between the pipes helped him accumulate 30 saves by the end of night.
"I think I played a pretty solid game," said McAdam. "They got a couple bounces and I was pretty happy with the way I battled back from things I couldn't really control."
McAdam also credited his defensemen for making his time in net a little easier Saturday night.
"I think the team played phenomenal the whole game," said McAdam "And then [Notre Dame] had some chances late and I felt like I made some big saves, and that's all I could really ask for, keep the team in the game."
Another standout performance of the weekend came from freshman Chase Berger, who had 4 shots on net and one goal in the win over Notre Dame. Berger, who plays on a line with seniors Curtis Loik and Kenny Brooks said the ability to play with such veteran members of the team has been a vital part of his success this season so far.
"For me personally coming in as a freshman it's great playing on a line with two seniors," said Berger. "They kind of play like me where they're a bigger body and kind of like to get it down low. I think we play a similar game where we keep it simple and moves the puck and crash the net hard."
Berger was impressed by his first home game weekend in Pegula Ice Arena and credited the atmosphere for pushing Penn State to its win Saturday.
"Personally I haven't played here before, before this crowd, and I think when the crowd gets going after we score one goal it just gets like electric on the ice," said Berger. "Everybody is really excited and more confident and you can just feel the ball start to roll the other way. So once you get one and everyone just gets confident, everybody's going and the atmosphere is just nuts."