A special trait: Janesville Jets among league's best on power play, penalty kill

Mar. 8—JANESVILLE — Two minutes into the third period of a North American Hockey League game last weekend in which the Janesville Jets held a 2-0 lead over Kenai River, the Jets took a penalty and gave the Brown Bears a man advantage and a chance to get back into the game.

But Jets captain Carter Hottmann had other ideas, scoring a short-handed goal to extend the lead. The Jets (15-8-2 this season) killed four of five penalties in the third period—and nine of ten in the game—and held on to win 3-2.

Strong special teams have become a big part of Janesville's identity this season.

The team has killed 90.4% of penalties, good for third in the league, and its power play is the fourth-best in the NAHL at 20.7%.

Especially in today's game, teams must commit to playing the right way on special teams, Jets first-year head coach Parker Burgess said, adding that a lot of practice time is spent working on details for both units.

"I think now more than ever, special teams is probably one of the most important aspects to focus on," Burgess said. "Five to ten years ago, it probably wasn't as prominent, but now it does take a lot of work.

"You have to pay a lot of attention to your special teams, because with the new rules to produce more offense, the refs are going to be calling more penalties. And they're a little bit more stringent on those things.

"Special teams can win and lose you hockey games, and they can make or break a season. You could have a great team, but if you can't capitalize on the power play, and you can't keep pucks out of your net on the penalty kill, you're gonna have a hard time winning hockey games."

Janesville lets its players have some creativity on the power play, Burgess said. The team does not run many set plays and relies heavily on two main factors: effort level and passing.

"When we outwork the penalty killers, and we get the puck more than they do, we have a chance to have a lot of success. And then we have to pass it hard; we have to pass it with confidence," Burgess said. "When we do those two things, we have a really good opportunity to score some goals. If we don't do those two things, it doesn't matter what systems we have or which players we have on the ice, we're going to be in trouble."

Forward Charlie Schoen shares the team lead with three power play goals this year.

He pointed to the team spreading the scoring around with the man advantage. Ten players have scored a power play goal for the Jets this year.

"I think it's huge having guys like that who can score all through the lineup," Schoen said. "I feel like it makes it a lot harder for a team's PK (penalty kill) to key in on one guy, because, you know, maybe you double up on one guy, you pressure harder on one guy, but there's also four other guys that are just as capable of scoring a goal. So I feel like it helps us and it's an advantage for us and it kind of hurts other teams PKs."

Every player on the team learns how to kill penalties from associate head coach Lennie Childs. Hottmann plays a pivotal role on the penalty kill and said one key is to limit the time for other teams' best players to make a decision.

Hottmann leads the league in shorthanded goals with four.

"Everyone thinks it's kind of a bummer to get a penalty," Hottmann said. "And, you know what, our guys and Coach Lennie have instilled it in our heads that it's an opportunity to penalty kill. If you kill off that penalty, it can be a huge momentum switch. So I think that's kind of what the guys look forward to providing for our team, and that's a big part of it."

"If you play a more aggressive penalty kill, it gives the power play less time. So I mean, technically, you could call it more aggressive, not as passive, but it's kind of been rolling for us. So I think that's the way we should be going."

Burgess said the penalty kill's aggressive nature is effective, and knowing every guy can kill penalties brings added confidence.

"That breeds a lot of confidence for us as coaches, knowing that even if this guy is the one that took the penalty or he may not be in the lineup or whatever, he's tired, we can kind of put anybody out there," Burgess said. "They've done a really good job, I think, at staying within the structure and just kind of suffocating other teams within that structure."

The Jets have won seven of their last 10 games, and Hottmann said special teams will continue to play a big role as the team hopes to string more wins together going forward.

At the end of an interview with the Gazette, Hottmann left it pretty simple when asked what people should know about the team and its special teams.

"The Jets are coming."