UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — While senior Adam Pilewicz might not fill up the statsheet most nights, his role on the team is unlike any other.
Pilewicz plays both forward and defense, sometimes even playing both roles in the same game. It's an uncommon theme and it's not something most, if any, players can even accomplish, let alone at a high skill level.
"It's definitely gotten easier over the years," Pilewicz said. "I think freshman year was pretty tough, kind of making that transition (from defense to forward). It takes a few shifts to fully integrate yourself into the game whenever you're looking at it from a different angle, so the first shift out there I'm trying to get a feel for the position and just trying to get my head right."
During his freshman season, the Nittany Lions were playing their home opener against American International. Nate Sucese was serving a one-game suspension, and Pilewicz, who primarily played defense his entire junior hockey career, filled in at right wing.
"I was really nervous," Pilewicz said. "I only had a few practices at forward to that point, and this was our home opener that year. I just remember trying not to make any mistakes. I don't think I really contributed much to that game, I just tried to not stick out too bad and just do what I can to help the team."
Recruited as a defenseman, Pilewicz has played the majority of his past four years at Penn State as a forward, playing in only a handful of games on defense for the Nittany Lions. Now in his fifth and final year with the program though, Gadowsky and his staff have opted to play him in a more defensive capacity.
Despite this, Pilewicz still plays both roles. In practice he may start off practicing with the defensemen, but mid-practice may play as a forward if someone gets injured or another forward is needed.
"I know I probably lead the country in jersey swaps mid practice," Pilewicz said.
It's not unheard of for Pilewicz to practice and prepare to play as a forward all week and then come game time have to get into the mindset to play defense.
"At times some weeks that does happen," Guy Gadowsky said. "Some weeks we tell him, 'Hey, looks like you're going to be a forward this week, so play forward on lines in practice.' And then some weeks it's the opposite… there's times where he will be practicing one position all week and then 10 minutes into the first period on the weekend it changes. Wisconsin was an example of that. He was ready to play defense the entire game and then… we lost a forward 10 minutes into the game and he had to go to plan B pretty quick."
In the Wisconsin series, Pilewicz played as a defenseman the first night, taking on Paul DeNaples' role after the latter was given a game misconduct. The second game he played as a forward after Kevin Wall was ejected.
While Pilewicz has been playing as a forward for many years now, he still tries to keep his game relatively simple.
"I know I was going out there with two pretty good, pretty skilled hockey players. I'm not trying to change my game too much based on who I'm playing with… I'm just trying to play forward," Pilewicz said. "There were a couple times in that game when (Ben Schoen) was coming over to me, and he's telling me, 'Make this play here, try and make this play,' and I'm like, 'Man, that's just not something that's in my repertoire, I'll be honest.'
"I was just trying to keep it simple and know that guys like (Ryan) Kirwan and Schoener, who I was playing with, they're going to do a lot of the work and if I just forecheck and backcheck hard and go to the net that we can make something happen, and I know we got a goal there in the first."
When the Nittany Lions played against Niagara in October, Pilewicz switched mid-game from forward to defense.
"The whole second or the whole third period was penalties… you just see me walking back and forth on the bench, penalty ends I walk back up," Pilewicz said. "It got to the point where I was just doing it myself, like I didn't need Gads to come over and tap me and say he needs me on D, I just stood up and walked over to the other end of the bench."
Having played both roles for so long, Pilewicz doesn't need to do much to change his mindset from that of a forward to that of a defenseman, or vice versa.
If he knows he is going to play a specific role before puck drop, he'll watch different things on video depending on what position he is playing. But he doesn't do anything special to change his mind set or get ready to play either position. In a game as fast as hockey, being able to think on the fly is a valuable asset.
"I just know what's expected of me in that time and I spend a lot of time working at it, so it's all kind of muscle memory," he said. "PK, five on three, stuff like that, it's all kind of just – you're going off of adrenaline out there, trying to make the right play."
Both Pilewicz and Gadowsky agree that Pilewicz's ability to play both positions have improved his overall game. Pilewicz's years of playing as a winger have given him confidence in the offensive zone, and his years of playing defense have allowed him to play as more of a defensive forward in the defensive zone.
Having played two of the three positions in hockey, Pilewicz is the team's Swiss Army knife. And at one point, he even got between the pipes.
"I went out for a pre-game skate a couple years ago and (wore) Will Holtforster's pads and messed around a little bit," Pilewicz recalled.
Safe to say, Pilewicz isn't going to be the team's starting goaltender.
But to Gadowsky and his teammates, Pilewicz's on ice capabilities are the least of what he brings to the team.
"What really makes him an unbelievably valuable player… in this program is the type of person he is," Gadowsky said. "Yes, he's been excellent on the ice. But, just him being in the program makes us better. He's one of those guys, and at the end of the day, when you look at the value of a program, it's really those guys that are of highest premium. And he's one of those guys for sure."
