At this time last week, there was a slight yet palpable sense of optimism about Guy Gadowsky. His team was about to head to South Bend for a tough, but winnable, series against Notre Dame. Sadly for the team, it didn’t go well, as it suffered its fifth and sixth consecutive Big Ten losses.

But as the losses continue to pile in what’s turned into a forgettable season for Penn State men’s hockey, Gadowsky seems to be in the same boat one week later. This time, despite the scoreboard, he did notice improvement in one particular area: intensity.

“At the start of the year, I think we were much more intense in the shifts that we had,” Gadowsky said. “That’s what I think, this past weekend, we got back to doing that, but that was one difference.”

Gadowsky discussed “systematic things” and juxtaposed those items with keeping the intensity high during games.

“We’re getting it back now, but you learn systematic things, but you have to make sure that you keep the intensity up at the same time,” Gadowsky said.

Additionally, Gadowsky wasn’t the only one who noticed a shift in the team’s intensity. Captain Christian Berger highlighted previously tough matchups against two of the best teams in the conference as learning points for the Nittany Lions.

“Yeah, I think it definitely has,” Gadowsky said. “I think Wisconsin and Michigan State were definitely eye-opening weekends for us. It would have been nice if we could have learned our lesson against Wisconsin — we didn’t. We had to get pumped by Michigan State, unfortunately.”

It was always going to be steep hills to climb against the Badgers and the Spartans. However, Penn State seemed outpaced and outplayed more often than not, perhaps due to a lack of intensity. That, and to “want” it more than the other team is huge, especially against those types of opponents.

“We have to work really hard,” Berger said. “We have to win battles and you kind of can’t go through the motions — you really have to want it out here, and it’s a tough league to play in so you’re going to get exposed if you don’t, and that’s exactly what happened to us. So it was a wake-up call, and we have to put it in every period, honestly.”

However, despite suffering another series sweep, the senior defenseman did notice an improvement. He specifically cited Penn State’s competitiveness and what it did that led to a better performance.

“This weekend, we were backchecking hard, winning battles, getting pucks to the net, fighting in front of the net, and winning the net-front battles. And, there’s definitely some stuff being cleaned up in terms of finding ways to not give up these great opportunities that other teams are scoring on. But, our competition was great,” he said.

Now, Penn State awaits a visit from last-place Ohio State this weekend. If the Nittany Lions can keep up their intensity, the six-game conference losing streak may finally come to an end.