{"id":89730,"date":"2018-12-13T10:00:13","date_gmt":"2018-12-13T16:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=89730"},"modified":"2020-08-24T13:39:39","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T18:39:39","slug":"penn-state-blueliner-hults-playing-a-two-way-game-for-nittany-lions-helping-team-to-big-ten-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2018\/12\/13\/penn-state-blueliner-hults-playing-a-two-way-game-for-nittany-lions-helping-team-to-big-ten-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn State blueliner Hults playing a two-way game for Nittany Lions, finding success by keeping game simple"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"ps_captionIns\" aria-describedby=\"caption-ps-captionIns\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"\/img-show\/I0000yT5nsUVkZqY\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Photo By: photo: Craig Houtz\/Penn State Athletics\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ColeHults3a-1.jpg\" alt=\"Penn State's Cole Hults (2) against Princeton in the third period on Oct. 26, 2018. No. 10 Penn State defeated No. 13. Princeton 4-2.  Photo\/Craig Houtz Cole Hults (photo: Craig Houtz\/Penn State Athletics)\" width=\"640\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-ps-captionIns\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Los Angeles prospect Cole Hults leads all Penn State defensemen with 13 points in 17 games thus far (photo: Craig Houtz\/Penn State Athletics).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It\u2019s well-documented that Penn State has a talented group of forwards.<\/p>\n<p>But during typical five-on-five action, there\u2019s three forwards, two defensemen and a goaltender on the ice.<\/p>\n<p>So how do said defensemen fit into the highest-scoring team in the country?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve got a simple back end, I like to say,\u201d Nittany Lions sophomore defenseman Cole Hults said. \u201cWe\u2019re all first-pass defensemen and we\u2019re not going to have anybody do anything flashy out there, but that\u2019s what forwards are for. We\u2019ll take care of the back end and get you the puck. A lot of our back-end points come from being on the puck and odd-man rushes. We don\u2019t try to do too much, we keep it simple, and I think that\u2019s where we\u2019re going to find a lot of our success.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hults, a Stoughton, Wisc., native and the Nittany Lions broke a 0-3-1 steak in a big way on Saturday when they downed Notre Dame at home 9-1. Obviously with the offense being first in the nation, it wasn\u2019t the first time this season that Penn State put a large number on the scoreboard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just how the flow of the game goes,\u201d Hults said of the team&#8217;s high-scoring affairs. \u201cOur forwards are obviously high-end, one of the best groups in the country, so being defensemen that makes our job really easy. Once you get those guys going and pushing the pace, it\u2019s pretty easy for them to make plays. It\u2019s natural for them all &#8212; they\u2019re all goal-scorers and playmakers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Nittany Lions will end their first half of the season by playing Princeton at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to the defense, Hults said head coach Guy Gadowsky wants them to keep things simple.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know what our forwards can do and we know why we\u2019re a high-scoring team,\u201d he said \u201cWe\u2019re the highest-scoring team in the country right now so I think [Gadowsky] just expects us to keep moving the puck and keep it simple.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hults had three goals and 10 assists so far this season and views himself as a two-way defenseman. He added that there are more ways to contribute to the offense than goals and assists.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt starts from your own end and you can be a two-way from breaking out the puck and jumping into the rush sometimes,\u201d Hults said. \u201cA lot of my success comes from clean breakouts, I try not to go off the glass too much unless I have to bypass somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That being said, the player would like to see his offensive stats keep pace as the season rolls on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like to be a little more involved in the offensive-zone, and that\u2019s kind of been my main focus this year coming off of last year,\u201d Hults said. \u201cRunning more switches or fake shots and getting deep into the zone and causing havoc for the forwards.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not a big scoring defenseman, but obviously I like to score a little bit here-and-there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s already matched his goal total from last year before the holiday break, so a healthy step up in terms of stats is definitely in the cards. He\u2019s also done it before. In his two full seasons for the USHL\u2019s Madison Capitols, Hults scored eight points during the 2015-16 season and 32 during the 2016-17 season.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a situation where the numbers don\u2019t tell the whole story, though.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy first year in Madison I thought was really good for me, too,\u201d Hults said. \u201cI didn\u2019t put up the most points, but it really gave me a chance to work on my defensive game, be that five or six shutdown defenseman. The next year, I ended up having a great opportunity and put up some pretty good numbers, but I didn\u2019t really change much in my game. I just moved the puck, and most of those points came from breaking the puck out of the neutral zone or our own end.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a different team and a different level of hockey, but Hults may be experiencing a similar payoff during his sophomore campaign.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve got a lot more confidence out there,\u201d Hults said. \u201cI already know my own identity and what kind of player I am, so this year it\u2019s kind of working on what I\u2019m good at and not really changing too much. What I\u2019m doing right now, I feel like it\u2019s working and it\u2019s very effective so it\u2019s just fine-tweaking little things.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s well-documented that Penn State has a talented group of forwards. So how do the defensemen fit into the highest-scoring team in the country? (photo: Craig Houtz\/Penn State Athletics).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":110701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[855],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Penn State blueliner Hults playing a two-way game for Nittany Lions, finding success by keeping game simple - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It\u2019s well-documented that Penn State has a talented group of forwards. So how do the defensemen fit into the highest-scoring team in the country? 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