Blue White Illustrated

OCT. 31 VS. WISCONSIN Two of the most exciting o5enses in the country will be on display at Pegula Ice Arena on Halloween night. Add in the recent his- tory between these teams, with the Lions besting Wisconsin in overtime in the third game of a Big Ten quarter4nal series last year, and this game is at the top of my list. NOV. 30 @ UMASS LOWELL The Nittany Lions will head to Lowell for what should be the only marquee game on a nonconference slate full of cupcakes. How Penn State performs will tell us a lot early in the year. DEC. 13 @ NOTRE DAME Penn State seemed to 4gure out Cale Morris during the regular season last year, only for Morris to end the Lions' season with a stalwart performance in the Big Ten title game. I'm interested to see how Penn State fares in the 4rst meeting since that game. FEB. 14 @ WISCONSIN For all the rea- sons described above, Penn State and Wisconsin should be appointment viewing this season. A Big Ten title could hang in the balance when the Lions make a late-season visit to Madi- son. FEB. 21 VS. MINNESOTA The Golden Gophers seem to take a trip to Pegula near the end of every Big Ten season, and it always ends poorly for them. This could be a huge series for both teams, with some intriguing history to boot. ■ NCAA tournament the past five years. MINNESOTA Like Michigan, Minnesota is always loaded with talent, it's just a matter of whether or not the Golden Gophers can mesh quickly enough for it to matter. They lost all three of their top point producers from a year ago as well, so the team will need some new faces to step up if they are to be a factor nation- ally. MICHIGAN STATE After losing superstar Taro Hirose from a team that finished in the Big Ten's cellar, it's tough to see the Spartans contending for very much this season. ■ FIVE GAMES TO WATCH Lions stumble vs. Alaska Fairbanks The vexing thing about a Penn State hockey program that continues to fall victim to the same trap is that it knows where the trap is. The Nittany Lions talk about it freely, sometimes unprompted. They know consistency is the problem. They attack that issue, they try to fix it. And yet, on Oct. 18, the ninth- ranked Lions fell right back into that trap again, losing, 4-0, to an Alaska Fairbanks team they are significantly better than. Don't believe it? Check the box score from their 7-0 destruc- tion of the same team only one night earlier. That's how the finale of the two-game series was supposed to go. Instead, Guy Gadowsky found him- self at his postgame news conference talking about how his team couldn't match the opponent's will to win. "I think when you look across at the other bench, you saw a lot of heart and guys who were committed to outworking their opponent," Gad- owsky said. Maybe Penn State thought it could roll over that Nanooks team like it did in the first game of the series. Maybe the Lions were distracted by the fan- fare around town with a White Out football game looming. Maybe an Alaska Fairbanks team that wasn't entirely sure it would get to play at all this season really did want it that bad. Regardless, the reality is that Penn State has been here before. Just last week, the Nittany Lions said they found themselves embar- rassed by a third-period effort in the second game of a series against Sa- cred Heart that saw the Pioneers turn a 4-0 laugher into a 5-4 thriller. Instead of addressing it, Penn State played flat. It fired 35 shots at the Alaska Fairbanks net but didn't work hard enough to get to the dangerous areas of the ice, where it can make those shots count for something other than a moral victory. For a Penn State program with so much success already under its belt, the next step is always a topic of dis- cussion. It's natural to talk about that in tangible terms – placing an alum- nus on an NHL roster long term, an- other Big Ten title, a Frozen Four appearance, maybe even a national championship. Consistency – not of results, but of mindset – is more difficult to point out. It doesn't hang from a banner inside Pegula Ice Arena and it doesn't make for great marketing. But it is important. The Nittany Lions know that, otherwise they wouldn't talk about it so much. So if Gadowsky is being straightfor- ward – and he almost always is – and Penn State's problem is the mentality it takes to the rink on certain nights, then perhaps this is the lesson. Maybe the anger, frustration and other emotions that led the Nittany Lions to call a postgame players-only meeting will lift them up instead of pulling them down. This year's team is the most talented the Lions have ever fielded. But that's only half the battle. Mentality is just as important. Maybe this is how that lesson finally hits home. – D.E.

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