Penn State Men’s Hockey Solidifying Identity Ahead Of Consequential Homestand

As students and fans return to campus, Hockey Valley is gearing up for a consequential six-game stretch on home ice. Just over halfway through its schedule, the squad is 31st in the Pairwise rankings and needs a run of wins if the Nittany Lions are going to sneak into the postseason.
Just seven series remain, and with a murderer’s row of opponents on the slate, head coach Guy Gadowsky’s Nittany Lions are focused on honing their identity as a team to come out alive.
While the box scores haven’t been perfect to start the second half of the season, they mark a solid improvement from the beginning of the team’s Big Ten schedule. Starting 0-8 in-conference, Penn State has returned from the winter break with a regulation win, two overtime points, and a shootout win in four games. The team has looked more cohesive after its time off. It’s looked more hungry, too.
That hunger has come from a shift in philosophy in the team, one that preaches finding your role on the team and being accountable for it. Archetypes like the goalscorer and the playmaker are always easy to embrace, but Gadowsky spoke on how necessary taking on the gritty roles like the grinder and the enforcer are to the team as the schedule wears on.
“That’s going to be a limiting factor to how far we go. If we can embrace the roles, the different roles that we have, then I think the sky is the limit,” Gadowsky said. “If that happens or not, it will be how well the leadership group does in embracing it themselves… They all are finding their footing in terms of their own personal way to lead.”
That leadership group has been scattered throughout the line-up all season. There are seniors on the top shifts and the last, healthy scratches and top scorers alike. While they’re not always leading the charge on the box scores, this crop of leaders gives Penn State a uniquely pervasive force to push for roster-wide buy-in.
Carson Dyck has spent four years in the system and he knows how important an identity is to a hockey team. He’s helping to lead the charge as the team refocuses on its strengths.
“I think our game is clicking because guys are starting to realize what real estate they’re fitting into. I mean, you can’t have 20 scorers on a team,” Dyck said. “You need guys to fill ‘identity lines.’ You need those identity lines, and that’s what it takes for teams to win. And I think we’re starting to realize that we’re building a momentum line.”
If you’ve followed Penn State men’s hockey, you’ve heard the phrase, “Identity Line,” before. It’s been Gadowsky’s go-to to explain his grittiest, get-it-done players in the past, and a return to this philosophy could be just what the team needs to push through the end of the season.
Dyck knows what it takes to make that late run and he’s confident in the Nittany Lions’ chances as they enter must-win territory.
“Relaying it to the young guys, they’ve been receptive to the idea that we can make a push for the tournament and we can really do this thing,” Dyck said. “Just putting the idea in our heads and us knowing that we can get it done is where that comes into play, I think we’ve got a hell of a chance.”
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