Late Goodwin Goal Leads to Tie in Home Opener
When all hope seemed lost and desperation set in, David Goodwin brought the magic back to Pegula Ice Arena late in the third period of Penn State’s home opener Friday night against UConn.
The five-foot-ten sophomore cleaned up the trash in front with just 48.3 seconds remaining and the Nittany Lions (0-0-1) and Huskies (0-0-1) skated to a 2-2 tie.
“I was just kind of whackin’ and grindin’ in front,” Goodwin said. “Honestly I saw the ‘Roar Zone’ put their hands up before anything, I saw that, and I put my hands up and I scored. It was a good sequence of events.”
Trailing 2-1 with under a minute to play, Penn State finally managed to pull goaltender Matthew Skoff to give the Blue and White a man advantage.
Moments after Skoff exited the ice, Taylor Holstrom fired a shot on net. Goodwin, who was positioned towards the right post of Huskie net minder Rob Nichols, was in the right place at the right time to bang home the rebound and force overtime.
“We felt confident the whole game,” Goodwin said. “We just tried to stick with the positives, stay confident. We went out there and we were just saying ‘We’ve got to get it to the net and start whacking.’ I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t any desperation in our play.”
Despite no scoring in the first period, Penn State jumped out to hot start and outshot UConn 13-5.
It wasn’t until 10:30 into the second frame when the Huskies took a 1-0 lead on a Patrick Kirtland goal.
Tommy Olczyk tied the game at one when he scored on a penalty shot with 5:33 remaining in the second period.
“I missed a lot of breakaways last year,” Olczyk said. “It’s nice to score a goal in the first game, definitely get a little monkey off the back, I don’t have to worry about it now.”
Olczyk was deliberate and took his time until he made a quick move to his left and then back to his right to squeeze the puck through the five-hole of Nichols.
“My dad’s probably going to tell me I came in too slow,” Olczyk said. “I knew what I was going to do the whole time, and I just figured, come in a little slower, get the goalie thinking. I knew what I was going do. He didn’t know what I was going to do.”
The third period was evenly matched, but it was UConn who took the 2-1 lead when Trevor Gerling deflected a Johnny Austin shot from the point past Skoff with 4:46 remaining in regulation.
After Goodwin evened the score, a five-minute overtime period ensued, but with no scoring the game ended in a 2-2 tie.
“Often the first night it’s tough to determine what’s going to happen,” head coach Guy Gadowsky said. “I like how we came out. I think some guys started to get a little synergy. There wasn’t a lot of flow or tempo to the game, but I thought we did some good things.”
Tyler Feldman is a junior dual majoring in broadcast journalism and marketing. To contact him, email him tfeldman5@gmail.com.
