All about the Numbers: GO FOR THE KILL

SRJC’s Top 10 statistics of the 2015-16 season: No. 9- Penalty Kills        ​

When your team decides to take up residency in the sin bin you’ve got to make sure you can kill an advantage. Luckily, the Polar Bears know exactly what to do…

Enemy squads got a chance at 134 power play opportunities (excluding DQ’s, misconducts and coincidentals), but the Polar Bear defense shut down their opponents 113 times this season.

SRJC blanked four teams on the power play in six games: Cal State Fullerton (0-10), San Francisco State University (0-8), Gonzaga University (0-6) and Portland State University (0-4). With the exception of San Francisco, all of these teams are Division II clubs.

Possibly the best PK on the year came against the Cal State Fullerton Titans Jan. 15-16. Not only were the Polar Bears stingy 0-6 in their 6-0 win Jan. 16, but SRJC denied the Titans 0-4 the night before in its loss. 

Only two teams got more than 15 man advantages over SRJC: UC Davis and San Jose State University. While SJSU scored the most power play goals (7), UC Davis got the most chances (23). The Polar Bears had a 66.6 Penalty Killing percentage against SJSU (7-21), with 82.61 percent against Davis (4-23).

"We really needed to have a strong PK this season for when we found ourselves in trouble. The biggest factor in our success was simply determination. We were determined to kill penalties because we know we can skate with anyone 5-on-5," said sophomore forward Jackson Waldron. "Our PK got us out of a lot of sticky situations, which is a real testament to our team's hard work and determination. That is what it takes to consistently kill penalties at this level."

As SRJC killed off penalties left and right, a few Polar Bear players found the PK to be just right when it came scoring goals. Stephen Wolmarans and Max Brownlee each scored two shorties, while Josiah Nikkel, Colin Ridenour, Matt Katicich, Evan Hastings, Larry Hansen and Tim Buchter each tallied one. All together that's 10 shorthanded goals in 25 games -- good for No. 1 out of all the teams SRJC faced this season. 

When we saw the amount of penalty minutes SRJC took in 2015-16, we kinda hung our heads in shame. But after taking a look at these PK stats, we're beaming with pride. Going 113 for 134 amounts to a 84.32 percent penalty kill rate. That's a solid "B" average. But we're gonna give ourselves a "B+," cause you know, extra points for style.

Tune in Thursday, March 3 to see what No. 8 is on SRJC’s Top 10 Statistics of the 2015-16 season.