I have written 24 columns for The Weekender over the past six months and my goal-scoring touch, or lack thereof, has been well-documented in many of them. As a few of you may know, the drought came to an end March 12 in a game against, coincidentally, my first professional team, the Norfolk Admirals.
In the locker room, I sit next to fellow defenseman Deryk Engelland. After about 50 games, Deryk noticed in the informational packages each team receives before games that there was a stat showing how many shots on net each player on the team had taken. He also noticed that I was creeping up on 100 shots on net without scoring. He convinced himself, and me, that my 100th shot on net would go in for my first pro goal. That thought was kind of cool. What wasn’t cool was after the 100th shot on net didn’t go in, Deryk would tell me that number 101 was going in, or number 102 was going to go in. That got annoying.
Chris Minard leads our team with about 800 shots on net. The team’s leading goal scorer, Kurtis MacLean, has taken 103 shots on net. Before my first goal, I had taken 107 shots on net. I mean honestly, wouldn’t you think if you had taken 107 shots on net, even a talented goalie would screw up and allow at least one to get by him?
Then it happened.
Midway through the third period of a tie game against Norfolk, I skated down the ice on a rush with Dennis Bonvie, Dave Gove and Mark Letestu. Bonvie gracefully skated down the right wing and fed a backdoor pass to Letestu. Letestu did not have a good shooting lane, so he backhanded the puck in front of the net to me. It could not have worked out more perfectly. The Admirals goalie thought Letestu was going to shoot and completely committed to Mark, and I was blessed with a wide open net. I had no time (or need) to stickhandle, think, or do anything other than shovel the puck into the net.
After that, everything went blank for me. I remember being so relieved, so happy that I finally scored a professional goal. Gove eventually outshined me that night by scoring a hat trick (should it really count if one of the three goals you score is an empty netter?), but I promise you I was the happiest guy on the rink. We won the game, which was a big division win for us, especially after being behind in the contest 2-0. It turned out to be a pretty good night for the Penguins.
One of the best parts of the night came after I returned home. I was on my phone with my younger brother, Nick, telling him about my goal, when the phone beeped with three new text messages. I hung up with Nick and checked the messages, and all three were from Penguins teammates who were currently in the NHL. In the span of about 45 seconds, I got text messages from Connor James, Chris Minard and Ryan Stone. It was such a great feeling to know that these guys, who were busy playing hockey at the highest level, still paid attention to how their friends were doing down in the AHL — and that they were still getting excited for a teammate who was finally able to score his first goal. I quickly responded, thanking all three of them, and told them I hoped I wouldn’t be seeing them again in Wilkes-Barre for a very long time …
w