2021-22 Penn State Nittany Lions

[Reddington]

Adolffson was paired with Uiehlien and Heminger. Heminger played with Gangarosa and Uiehlien. It is obvious that from +- that the weak spot was Adolffson.

So Lobdell is at +23. She played with Gangarosa and Adolffson. Gangarosa is at +19. Adolffson is at +11.

Heminger was +18 and was paired with Gangarosa and Uiehlien. So Gangarosa is +19 and Uiehlien is plus 10. Heminger was not dragged down by Uihleen.

Anyway let's move on. I don't thinks she is the reason the team is underwhelming, but root her on I the Olympics and it was nice to have her for three years.

[Puckndeep]

It would be interesting to see the numbers on the D when playing teams above .500. Again numbers can be misleading depending on the strength of your opponent’s. The defense isn’t coached very well that’s for sure. The first two qualities you look for in a defenseman should be are they defending the ice and can they move the puck out of the zone and up the ice under pressure. In addition to that you must tough to play against. I would say without a doubt that Lobdell is the most complete defenseman. In addition to that she plays with a edge and is physical. I’m not sure you can say that about the majority of the girls on the back end.

[Reddington]

I don't have Lobdell as being physical at all and is known for being offensive minded. She is not even close to leading the team in blocks. I do like her though and what she brings to the table.


So the reality is the team had 12 blocks in the first game and 4 yesterday. Bothun finished the game at .885. RIT scored 2 goals on 17 shots. Is that great no, did I see weak goals no. The d was not the problem yesterday. The offense did not score enough.

Plain and simple PSU needs to score 3 goals and have at least 10 blocks to be competitive.


And your comment on wanting more data against the better teams might apply to some teams, but PSU has trouble scoring and does not have the discrepancy that some teams have as PSU rarely blows out anyone.

[Puckndeep]

You maybe correct there. Probably should have said she handles physical play better and doesn’t look as uncomfortable as some of the other D. You block shots as a team. Everyone should be blocking shots when the opportunity presents it’s self. I have seen girls shy away from blocking shots at times which is not something you see from players that are fully committed to winning.

[Reddington]

Everyone can have their favorite player. It's good for women's hockey.

[EMPTYNETTER]

I don't have Lobdell as being physical at all and is known for being offensive minded. She is not even close to leading the team in blocks. I do like her though and what she brings to the table.


So the reality is the team had 12 blocks in the first game and 4 yesterday. Bothun finished the game at .885. RIT scored 2 goals on 17 shots. Is that great no, did I see weak goals no. The d was not the problem yesterday. The offense did not score enough.

Plain and simple PSU needs to score 3 goals and have at least 10 blocks to be competitive.


And your comment on wanting more data against the better teams might apply to some teams, but PSU has trouble scoring and does not have the discrepancy that some teams have as PSU rarely blows out anyone.

I agree with your comments about scoring. There is no reason this team shouldn't put 3 in every game, especially against a team like RIT. Hence my comment about needing more production outside of the top line. it's also important to note that offense starts in the defensive zone. Breakouts this season have not been a strong point, with awful passing and rarely hitting forwards in stride with speed, or bringing a weak side D up ice on the rush.

Your comment about blocks is a good one. I believe the announcer said RIT blocked like 20+shots yesterday. That shows a commitment to compete, and quite honestly is they only way a team like that can stay in games. A winger's job is to get in shooting lanes and by default should block a fair number. It is a weak point on this team, could be for a variety of reasons....poor positioning, lack of willingness to get in lane and take a puck, etc). I pulled the stats for blocks for the past two seasons (2020-21 268 blocks in 21 games, 2021-22 238 blocks in 23 games so far).

2020-21
Gangarosa	D	37
Aldofsen	D	35
Heminger	D	30
Zanon	C	26
Uihlein	D	24
Dobson	W	24
Lobdell	D	23
Gough	W	14
Weiss	C	10
Connolly	W	8
Ciarrocchi	W	8
Promersberger	C	8
Heising	W	7
Machado	W	5
Byrnes	W	5
Wallin	W	3
Lantto	W	1

2021-22
Gangarosa	D	41
Uihlein	D	25
Mitchell	D	24
Lobdell	D	20
Heminger	D	20
Dobson	W	18
Zanon	C	16
Garcia	D	11
Weiss	C	11
Connolly	W	10
Gaugh	W	10
Machado	W	8
Heising	W	5
Vaslet	C	5
Wallin	W	4
Promesberger	C	3
Bedier	W	2
Byrnes	W	2
Lantto	W	2
Ciarrocchi	W	1

[ZedLeppelin]

Is there a limit to how many more seasons the NCAA is going to give seniors the option to return for a bonus year? I'm wondering, because I took a look at collegecommitments.com to see who Penn State has coming next year vs. who they're losing to graduation, specifically on defense.

Without the option of a bonus year, Penn State will be losing Rene Gangarosa (senior), Izzy Heminger (senior), and Avery Mitchell (already on her bonus year). That only leaves Mallory Uihlein, Lyndie Lobdell, and Karley Garcia as returning defenders.

Penn State has just one defender listed on collegecommitments.com coming in next season. That's four defenders for next year. I really don't think recruiting wouldn't have added at least a couple more defenders to the list if Gangarosa and Heminger weren't going to have the option of a bonus year. Avery Mitchell is gone regardless, as she's on her bonus year this year.

[Reddington]

You are a night owl or you were watching the pounding of the Arizona Cardinals last night until the end.

Next up Lindenwood. I see Lindenwood beat Syracuse. Fingers crossed on taking care of business.

Anybody that played last year, that year does not count towards eligibility is my understanding. So freshmen last year could stay five years including last year.

[ZedLeppelin]

This weekend's series at Lindenwood has been cancelled due to Covid in the Lindenwood program, and will not be rescheduled:

https://gopsusports.com/news/2022/1/...-canceled.aspx

[Reddington]

That's a bummer, but at the same time, one cannot really be surprised. Hopefully, that will be it on cancellations.

[ZedLeppelin]

That's a bummer, but at the same time, one cannot really be surprised. Hopefully, that will be it on cancellations.

Better safe than sorry, for sure, but I hope the rest of the season can play out as scheduled. Penn State gets one more crack at Mercyhurst, Syracuse, and RIT before the CHA tournament at the end of February.

With the "everyone gets in" CHA tournament, final regular season standings really only matter for the #1 seed, who not only gets one more day off than the rest of the teams, but also gets to host the CHA tournament this year instead of everyone heading to Buffalo. I never liked everyone going to an arena in Buffalo that nobody sees in the regular season - let a CHA school host a CHA tournament.

[Reddington]

Thoughts: With that tie to RIT, I think all hopes of moving back into the top ten are bye bye. One could argue that happened on Tuesday Night against Cornell for sure.

So how about splitting up Heising and Zanon and seeing if PSU can sustain two lines. Zanon is a facilitator and could possibly get Wallin going.

Heising and Gough seem like a good combo.

Finding a third to fit for each line is a bit more challenging and I'm interested in seeing what other fans have to say. Of course someone may have totally different ideas on lines and let's hear those too.

Two lines would be harder to scheme against. And the Coach could alternate starting lines so there are no hard feelings.

Try to stay away from negativity if possible because all the girls seem to be working hard.

[ZedLeppelin]

So how about splitting up Heising and Zanon and seeing if PSU can sustain two lines. Zanon is a facilitator and could possibly get Wallin going.

Heising and Gough seem like a good combo.

Finding a third to fit for each line is a bit more challenging...

Natalie Heising and Julie Gough would be a great fit, and maybe move Olivia Wallin back up to the top line with them, and put Alyssa Machado on the second line with Kiara Zanon. After that, it's so wide open as to who fills the slots on which line, because the goal scoring drops so quickly after Heising, Zanon, and Gough. If those three don't score, it's going to be a long game, and Heising is gone after this season. I really like Amy Dobson because she works so hard - she hasn't scored a goal all season, but does so much good work away from shooting the puck, so she's hard to place on a line.

There aren't any real go-to goal scorers after the top three, and that's something that really needs to get fixed. I wouldn't want to be putting these lines together.

[Lindsay]

Good discourse here. There won’t be anymore too ten inclusions for the CHA this year I don’t think. Too many bad losses across the board. Number one thing a top ten team does is pile up wins. I still maintain Penn state should have been in the tourney last year for that reason, but they’ve failed to take a step forward so far this year. Well that’s not true. The UMD win was huge but then not taking care of business against RIT and St Cloud was a shot in the foot.

Hurst does similar things - their 2nd day on any weekend, you just don’t know what you’re going to see.

Cuse, feels like they can get leads in non conference games against good teams but they can’t hold on to them. All the above examples...just symptoms of teams still needing to take a step before being top ten.

even with the CHA having major let downs against LIU and St Cloud....still a winning record for the league against Hockey East so that’s a positive.


I think teams want to win the CHa reg season trophy simply to win it. The value of Getting to host and a bye game in the cha playoffs may differ to different people but it’s quite secondary to winning the trophy in my opinion.
There should be no shortage of incentive to get every single league point possible, based on trophy alone. The Penn State tie against RIT was a gift to the Lakers, no question. Cuse has a loss to LU. Hurst’s biggest oops was non conference so far.

No Hurst games this weekend so both Penn State and Hurst are coming off a bye when they play next weekend.

Adolffson was named to team Sweden for the Olympics I see. And Allison Coomey is going as a US scout I think? Congrats to both.

[ZedLeppelin]

I still maintain Penn State should have been in the tourney last year for that reason, but they've failed to take a step forward so far this year. Well that's not true. The UMD win was huge but then not taking care of business against RIT and St Cloud was a shot in the foot.

Especially the showing at RIT - blank them one night and get taken to an OT tie the next. I think giving up that point is going to come back to bite Penn State when the regular season is over.

I think teams want to win the CHA regular season trophy simply to win it. The value of getting to host and a bye game in the CHA playoffs may differ to different people, but it's quite secondary to winning the trophy, in my opinion.

I'll take the opinion of a former Mercyhurst women's hockey player every time!

No Hurst games this weekend, so both Penn State and Hurst are coming off a bye when they play next weekend.

I don't know if that's good news or bad news for Penn State. There certainly won't be any excuses for not coming out ready to play. We'll see if anything's changed since they split in October.

Adolffson was named to team Sweden for the Olympics I see. And Allison Coomey is going as a US scout I think? Congrats to both.

I know I hype Jessica Adolfsson a lot, but she always worked hard at Penn State, and she's really worked hard to make the Olympic team, so good for her. I think her trip to Penn State was her way of gearing up for the Olympic tryouts in Sweden. And yup, Allison Coomey will be a scout with Team USA at the Olympics, so that's cool, too.