UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Evan Barratt's junior season has not always unfolded as smoothly as he would have liked. After registering the third highest single-season point total in program history with 43 last year, expectations for him this season were sky high.
Penn State hit a new low point in its season over the weekend after being swept by Michigan at home, including a 6-0 trouncing on Friday night. The good news though is that Barratt played arguably his best game of the season Saturday night, scoring two goals and ending a five-game scoreless drought.
"It's definitely a nice little burst of energy you get and a bit of excitement," Barratt said. "I just hadn't been able to get any bounces to go my way. It was just nice to see one go in and then another one go in, and hopefully I can keep it going from here."
Even after a bit of a slump, Barratt still is tied for the Penn State lead in points with 28. The Nittany Lions are also still tied with Michigan State for second place in the Big Ten and only one point behind Ohio State for the top spot in the conference.
Beyond Barratt's advanced offensive skill set, Penn State has fed off the consistent energy he brings to the ice and the physical brand of hockey he plays.
"He is an ultra-competitive kid on the ice," Penn State head coach Guy Gadowsky said. "When that's very visible I think that ignites us."
Barratt doesn't like to think of himself as a highly vocal leader and instead just tries to set an example by being the hardest worker and most competitive guy on the ice. However, he acknowledges that there are times when he is a bit more vocal, particularly after a bad loss like last Friday night.
"We weren't good by any means on Friday, so we needed to figure out what went wrong very quickly and turn it around for Saturday," Barratt said. "We knew we needed to get some points in the Big Ten standings. Unfortunately, we couldn't put a full 60-minute effort in but we're making steps to that."
Gadowsky felt Penn State had arguably its best week of practice of the year leading up to the Michigan series, but it was also arguably the team's most intense practice week so far, which might have caused the team to not be well-rested enough to play its best hockey.
The reasoning behind the approach was to try to avoid a slow start to resuming Big Ten play after the holiday break, something that Penn State has been plagued by in past years. Gadowsky said the intensity during this week's practice will be scaled back a bit, but the players did not attribute the lackluster effort on Friday to not being well-rested enough.
"It's on us to be ready for the weekend," Barratt said. "We have to do whatever it is for that to happen. All of us are very confident in our team and the environment that we have, but we just have to put it on ourselves to be ready and get everyone going in the right direction on Friday and Saturday."
It was arguably Penn State's worst weekend of the season so far, as Penn State was unable to get in the win column for the first time in a series this season, but the Nittany Lions still managed to collect a point on Saturday, so there is no panic from the team right now.
Gadowsky acknowledged though that the team's 22 wins last season were not quite enough to qualify Penn State for the NCAA Tournament last year. Right now, Penn State has 16 wins, and with only 10 regular season games left to play, the Nittany Lions will be playing with a high sense of urgency the rest of the way. Barratt's physicality will be an important factor the rest of the way for the team to avoid missing out on the NCAA Tournament for a second consecutive season.
The good news is that Penn State feels that it is very close to putting it all together and going on a late season run.
"I thought we were closer to putting it all together than we showed last weekend," Gadowsky said. "There are peaks and valleys in every season…I'm still very optimistic that this group can figure it out."
