After the penalty-kill unit struggled in their last game before break, the No. 2 Penn State ACHA Division I Icers were welcomed back to practice by the familiar voice of coach Scott Balboni.
"Man-on-man!" he screamed. "Don't let someone get wide open in front of the net!"
Despite their 13-1-3 record, the Icers have had discipline problems and issues stopping the opposing team's power play. The team is hoping to change all of that with a different practice routine this week.
The Icers' focus this week is shaking the rust off after the layoff and working on solidifying a special teams unit that has troubled them so far this season.
In Penn State's 5-4 overtime loss to No. 8 Liberty on Nov. 17 the team allowed four goals on the Flames' eight power play opportunities -- including the game-winner. The Icers committed eight penalties in the game and had to play catch-up to push it to overtime.
To counter the mistakes, the Icers started working on the power-play and penalty-kill drills a day earlier that usual in practice this week.
"We were off our rotations and had some mental mistakes," Penn State senior forward Sean Kenney said. "We started early to make sure we are ready for the weekend, because we can't afford the same mistakes."
To ensure his team understood their assignments, Balboni ran the point of the power play to show the team things they will see this weekend. It helps allow him to see what they are doing right and wrong, he said.
While the team is focusing on the special teams, it is also working on conditioning after the break.
"The biggest thing for us is getting our legs back under us after the layoff," junior forward Luke DeLorenzo said. "We are using some slow drills to get back and forget about what happened before break."
One of those was a one-on-one drill used every Tuesday to strengthen the team's man-on-man play. It's something the team does weekly to get back to basics after the weekend, Balboni said.
Most of the drills early in the week are skill related, just to keep the team fresh. Later in the week the Icers work on more focused issues such as special teams.
While conditioning is important after a break, the Icers have to keep in mind their injury problems.
With numerous players out, the Icers are using practice time to work on new lines.
"We basically have to use new lines with the amount of injuries on the team," Balboni said. "We're just starting to put some new combinations out there, and the first days back are to get their feet back under them."
The Icers are also working on their gameplan for this weekend's games with No. 6 Delaware.
"We've gone back and looked over the tapes from the past two seasons," Kenney said. "They got some defensemen behind us for breakaways, and we can't let that happen this year."
The holiday break helped the team get some players back from injury, but it's still not at full strength. The practices are gearing the team up for the hard stretch of games ahead.
"We're intentionally making it as confusing as possible out there," Balboni said. "A lot of people and colors going different ways to confuse them is going to help get them ready for the games ahead."
