Guy Gadowsky has officially earned a hat trick. Doff your head gear accordingly.
On Monday, the Big Ten Conference honored the Penn State bench boss with its highest honor: Coach of the Year.
Gadowsky guided the Nittany Lions to their first winning season in the Division I era in just their third overall campaign. Penn State, picked to finish last in the preseason, exceeded all expectations by remaining in the Big Ten title chase until the final weekend and defeating every team in the conference at least once -- including Michigan three times out of four.
“It’s great for this program. That award is really for what players exceed expectations but in this case I think it goes even further … it’s a lot about the atmosphere we have inside the building … this is a total program award,” said Gadowsky in his trademark polite style on Wednesday.
The Nits, who flirted with first place thanks to a stretch of 11 consecutive games in mid-season on friendly ice including eight straight at Pegula Ice Arena, eventually ended the regular season fourth in the conference with a 10-9-1 record and face fifth-seeded Ohio State in a one-game playoff Thursday afternoon in Detroit.
PSU finished 18-14-4 overall and 13-2-3 in State College, all significant improvements from last season, when it ranked sixth out of six in the nascent grouping of Midwest universities. They've also garnered national attention for their relentless attack, predicated on puck possession and at times a fusillade of shot attempts.
The award is Gadowsky's third coach of the year honor. He first netted mention with the 2001-02 CCHA award at what was then called the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and then followed up by taking 2007-08 ECAC Hockey accolades at Princeton. Gadowsky was a Spencer Penrose Award finalist for nation's top coach in his previous two instances as conference coach of the year, and should be on the short list for the same this time around.
Gadowsky's Nittany Lions more than doubled their win total from last season in just their third year as a varsity program. They were consistently in the top 10 in terms of total offense, finishing ninth at 3.28 per game, and improved their defense, clocking in at just over three per contest. In addition, the power play clicked at a 21.88 rate, good enough for sixth in the nation.
“Two seconds after the game was over (Saturday’s season-ending 6-2 loss to the Gophers which finished off a weekend sweep), it was ‘playoff time.’ What happened Friday didn’t matter, what happened Saturday didn’t matter and what happened this year didn’t matter,” Gadowsky noted of his team’s mindset.
Heading into a matchup with OSU, against which Penn State went just 1-3-0, could there any allowance for recalling the emotion from that shocking double-OT first-round victory against the Wolverines last March?
“Down the road, these guys are going to look back with incredible pride on what was accomplished. They’re not thinking about a Saturday in October or what happened last year. But right now, that’s what they’re looking forward to.”
While the team’s mindset for the playoffs is a clean slate, that doesn’t mean Gadowsky’s going to rest on that same idea. He spoke at the Big Ten postseason conference call on Tuesday about taking little lessons and adjustments from earlier losses and applying them to the single-elimination games ahead.
“Sometimes you get a little tight in certain situations and we did, we allowed our lack of discipline to come to the forefront. I thought we worked on that hard all year and maybe it’s a good reminder that it’s something you can never forget. You can never relax and say ‘now we’re a disciplined team,’” he said of the Minnesota series and the Ohio State set a few weeks prior.
Gadowsky eventually led Alaska and Princeton to the NCAA Tournament, but his task, at least this season, appears to be just beyond reach. Unless the Lions win three games in three days and therefore receive an auto-bid as playoff conference champions, a national bid is unlikely.
PSU ranks 30th in the PairWise (though one spot ahead of Big Ten second-place finisher Michigan State), which is the determining factor in what programs comprise the ultimate field of 16. Nonetheless, a sure sign of growth in a program is the progression from surprise spoiler to genuine threat in just one season.
So, what do you think of these guinea pigs now, Mr. Peters? Are they treading the wheel as you thought?
Hobey Baker List Reaches Final 10
This morning, the 10 finalists for the 2015 Hobey Baker Award were finally revealed, with a balanced, but puzzling list.
Included is North Dakota goaltender Zane (don't call me Gothberg) McIntyre -- which is odd since there's a separate honor for goaltenders now called the Mike Richter Award.
Also on the list is Union forward Daniel Ciampini, whom most of college hockey missed as the key player in the Dutchmen's 2014 semifinal win over Boston College while the masses were ogling a potential clash between Shayne Gostisbehere and John Gaudreau.
NCAA basketball Tournament entrant and Atlantic Hockey's regular-season champs Robert Morris boast forward Cody Wydo among the potential honorees, while high-scoring and top vote recipient Michigan senior forward Zach Hyman was a no-brainer for the list as he ranks seventh in the country in total points.
Super frosh and the country's No. 1 point producer Jack Eichel of Boston University is in the middle of the pack among fan voting, with rival Jimmy Vesey from Harvard lagging behind him despite placing third among all point-getters.
Rounding out the list are Minnesota's Mike Reilly, Matt Garbowsky from RIT, Michigan Tech's Tanner Kero and Joey LaLeggia from Denver.
Of course, Gaudreau is the defending Hobey winner, while a goaltender hasn't been selected since Michigan State's Ryan Miller way back in 2001.
Ides of March
Tom Petty was right when he said the waiting is the hardest part.
Exactly 15 years ago tonight, a Saturday evening spent in the upper regions of TD Garden, I had no clue if I worked my final broadcast as a collegian. Chestnut Hill’s hockey fans and two of its students lucky enough to cover the Hockey East finals between Maine and Boston College for the campus radio station were also in shock. Not daring to speculate on an uncertain future.
The fourth-place Black Bears swept through Boston, taking out second-place BU and then third-place BC by a 2-1 count, throwing into complete chaos the logic behind choosing more than two teams from the conference to fit into the NCAA’s bracket of 12 schools in its upcoming national tournament.
The culprit was Niko Dimitrakos, who scored the game-winning goal with seconds to play in regulation. It was a score still clouded in controversy for a certain partisan group who witnessed it, but now we have video evidence to back it up.
As planned, Maine’s Cory LaRose won the offensive left-circle draw back to Dimitrakos, who presumably would have tried a pass to the point or try a shot through traffic towards the net. Instead, we see the offending action at the six-second mark -- namely LaRose emerging from a scrum to yank future Hobey Baker award winner and senior BC captain Mike Mottau off his feet -- which allowed Dimitrakos a lane through the top of the circle which he used to score.
Had Mottau been allowed to remain upright, Dimitrakos’ path was sealed shut. Yet the officials missed this blatant tripping call, tie game late in regulation be damned. They simply missed an obvious call. And the resulting actions make this clip a veritable Zapruder film for Eagles fans of a certain age.
Prior to the final minute of regulation, this contest between long-time rivals was a snoozer. Shawn Walsh (G-d rest his soul) introduced the neutral-zone trap the season prior and set about doing to Hockey East what the Devils did to the NHL several years before. It was a scoreless death struggle until LaRose’s marker early in the third.
Tension began to set in and feverish hope that BC could send this game beyond regulation and somehow win it, reversing an agonizing one-goal OT defeat against the Black Bears in the previous Spring’s Frozen Four semifinal. When Bobby Allen tallied after Scott Clemmensen was sent to the bench for an extra skater, it looked like there was new life for the home team.
The hockey gods appeared to have conspired against us. PBP man Ryan Welch and I spent a good 10 minutes in the post-game wrap up essentially tracing the arc of the entire season as we grew into the roles which allowed us to cover the team. If BC wasn’t selected the next morning, our career was essentially over because there was no budget or allowance to broadcast other schools even though the semifinals and final took place in Providence.
Little did we know that greater heartbreak was in store once we were given the green light to continue…
Join the Discussion:
»