University Park, Pa. — Peyton Jones is having the best season of his career in his senior campaign as the Penn State goaltender.
A four-year starter, Jones ranks first among goaltenders in program history in games started, wins and saves. In his first three seasons, he saved right around 90% of opponents' shots in each season, but Penn State head coach Guy Gadowsky has often pointed out that Jones' numbers were a bit misleading because he was often a victim of Penn State's poor defensive play.
This year, Jones' save percentage has increased to more than 92%, and he is a big reason Penn State currently sits atop the standings in a tightly contested Big Ten race.
"I know he put a lot of time in over the summer trying to figure out and simplify himself and his game," Penn State forward Evan Barratt said. "He's done an unbelievable job for us and he's kept us in a lot of hockey games so far, and I know he's only going to continue to do that and get better through the rest of the year."
The Big Ten standings are closer than they've been in Jones' four years at Penn State with the top six teams in the conference separated by only six points. Gadowsky praised the competition in the Big Ten this year, calling all seven teams in the league not just good, but excellent.
The fact that Jones has had his best season of his career when the Big Ten is as competitive as it's ever been is a testament to both Jones' individual improvements and the surrounding pieces defensively.
"When you have, whether it's a goaltender, or a defenseman or forward, that works as hard as Peyton does and is as much of a student of the game and as committed as he is, it sure is great to see," Gadowsky said. "I think you can attribute the improvement to both aspects, and I'm not sure if one outweighs the other."
Before Penn State's huge win at Ohio State last Saturday to move into sole possession of first place in the conference, the team had not won a game in regulation in its previous three weekends.
"Winning any night in this league is nice," Jones said. "It's a hard league to play in. As you can see, the standings are so tight, but I think that we take it one day at a time and just try to win each game."
The offense struggled without having its senior captain, Brandon Biro, for three consecutive series against Michigan, Michigan State and Notre Dame, so a lot of pressure was put on Jones to be at his best.
Furthermore, over the past four weekends Penn State has played in at least one overtime game in each series. Despite all of those minutes on the ice, Jones said the rest of the team are still in great shape.
"I think we're feeling good," Jones said. "I mean overtime is just five, 10 extra minutes of hockey. It's not really that much. It's late in the season, but we're feeling good. A lot of guys are healthy, so we're really happy about that."
Another thing that has fueled Jones' success this season is his day-to-day approach. He has never been a guy who dwells on his last game, no matter what the result was, or someone who looks too far ahead in the future.
Jones developed this mentality over time during his career at Penn State with the help of former Penn State sports psychologist, Dave Yukelson. Jones visited with Yukelson frequently during his freshman year to talk about the mental side of the game. Yukelson has since retired, but he and Jones still talk several times each week.
"He always tells me just be present," Jones said. "You're living your dream. I'm going to the school that I dreamed of going to and playing the game that I love, so just be present, take it all in and that's kind of what I do. If I lose a game, I can't go back and change it so why think about it? I just try to win every night and try to do my best. He's really helped me just be present and take it one day at a time."
For as intense as Jones is on the ice, the other Penn State players all say he is a great teammate. Freshman Connor MacEachern said Jones was one of the first players to reach out to him when he first came to Penn State over the summer and now this season his locker is right next to Jones'.
"Obviously I was a little intimidated with an older guy coming to me. You don't want to feel like an annoying little freshman," MacEachern said, "He was always very open and welcoming. We're always talking and building up that relationship, so it's going to be sad when he's gone next year."
Penn State will be on the road again this weekend for another big series against Wisconsin, who Penn State swept at home early in the season.
With just two more regular season series left, every game will be crucial in determining seeding for the Big Ten Tournament.
Wisconsin may currently be last in the Big Ten standings, but the Badgers are the second-best offensive team in the conference behind Penn State. Jones had one of his best series of the year against the Badgers earlier in the season, but facing players like Cole Caufield, one of the top NHL prospects in college hockey, and Wyatt Kalynuk, one of his good friends, will be a challenge that he won't look past.
"They're a really good offensive team," Jones said. "They've got a lot of good players up front, good players in the back…regardless of who you're playing, if it's a top team in the conference or a bottom team or a team who's not high in the Pairwise rankings, you can win every game, so we don't really look at who we're playing. We just go look at the game plan and try to execute it as best we can."
