{"id":802748,"date":"2020-01-03T17:38:19","date_gmt":"2020-01-04T00:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=376810"},"modified":"2020-01-03T17:38:19","modified_gmt":"2020-01-04T00:38:19","slug":"summit-high-hockey-looks-to-improve-power-play-offense-to-reach-higher-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/summit-high-hockey-looks-to-improve-power-play-offense-to-reach-higher-level\/","title":{"rendered":"Summit High hockey looks to improve power-play offense to reach higher level"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Max Bonenberger of Summit High School plays against Glenwood Springs on Dec. 21.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The Summit High School varsity hockey team returned to action Thursday at the first of two practices on the day with a 35-minute skate \u2013 double what the team has done in the past for its first practice back after the holiday break.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo get those their competitive mindsets focused,\u201d Tigers head coach Joey Otsuka said about the four total practices across Thursday and Friday. \u201cAnd they responded great. It\u2019s one of best practices we had since the high school season started. No one complained. Everyone worked hard. That was a good sign showing what their mindset is. We\u2019ve only played maybe a third of the season. We got to get going. We still have a lot of work to do. There\u2019s still food on our plate to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Summit High hockey team, in the spirit of the Dallas Cowboys star running back Ezekiel Elliott<\/a>, \u201cIt\u2019s time to eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

After beginning the season with a 4-2 record, capped by an enthralling last-second home win over Glenwood Springs<\/a>, Otsuka said now\u2019s the time for the Tigers to throttle up and play their best team hockey. Though he is content with the overall quality of hockey Summit has played this season \u2014 outshooting its opponents 205-168 through six games \u2014 Summit has yet to find itself when it comes to its power-play offense.<\/p>\n

The Tigers haven\u2019t laced up their skates since before Christmas, so Otsuka said Thursday and Friday\u2019s practices focused on mustering the cohesion and confidence to fire more effectively on power plays. With a road trip at Mullen on tap at 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Otsuka said the Tigers are converting on about one-fifth to one-sixth of their power-play opportunities. Summit has especially struggled after a torrid start to the season on power plays.<\/p>\n

All things considered, he\u2019d like to see that conversion percentage creep closer to one-third, which would set the Tigers offense up to be a dynamic and versatile threat with a dozen games remaining in the campaign, including a two-night home stand Jan. 10-11 at Stephen C. West Ice Arena in Breckenridge versus the team Otsuka used to coach, Crested Butte (4-2).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have eight to 10 players we selected to be on two power play units, and we are looking at them expecting them to score,\u201d Otsuka said. \u201c\u2026 I would say the Glenwood game, we had a couple of pretty good opportunities, but we just didn\u2019t capitalize on them. And for the most part, we\u2019re not even getting that scoring opportunity. We have a pretty strong and unique power play formation, and it\u2019s risky. But we feel like we have the skill to deal with that risk this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Otsuka said that in order for that power play to succeed, considering the formation, the Tigers have to provide a lot of movement. That means the puck moves horizontally and vertically and that Tigers players move horizontally and vertically. At times early in the season, Otsuka said the Tigers got the puck moving but didn\u2019t cycle as much as needed, resulting in poor shots from far out rather than better looks closer to net.<\/p>\n

Overall, the coach is asking for more risk from his guys for more reward in the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf players don\u2019t accept that risk and really buy into that and move their feet to create cycles or mini-screens, all it\u2019s doing is wasting time,\u201d Otsuka said. \u201cAnd if we happen to be up, that\u2019s OK. But if we\u2019re down and need a goal, that\u2019s not OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

The good news for the Tigers is that when they consistently get a handle on their power-play offense, it\u2019ll be the exclamation point on the early season where they\u2019ve met their own lofty expectations. With a \u201cstate playoff or bust\u201d mentality, Otsuka was encouraged Thursday to see the team, namely its senior leadership, wants to make things tougher on themselves to be ready for bigger battles later in the season.<\/p>\n

And that means focusing on having discipline on the daily off the ice. It means getting at least eight hours of sleep not only one night, but two nights before a game. That means not eating pizza at lunch. That means setting yourself up for success.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the mental game,\u201d Otsuka said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got all the skill in the world. This is one of the better skilled high school hockey teams I\u2019ve coached in my career. It just depends on how they prepare. I believe we are getting better in that aspect because there\u2019s no X\u2019s and O\u2019s drill you can do to take care of that. It\u2019s about constant communication. How well we are doing is because of the sacrifices our leadership core is making, and that puts pressure on the younger crew to make the sacrifices.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Max Bonenberger of Summit High School plays against Glenwood Springs on Dec. 21.Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com The Summit High School varsity hockey team returned to action Thursday at the first of two practices on the day with a 35-minute skate \u2013 double what the team has done in the past for its first practice back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-802748","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-29 11:41:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802748\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}