Tom Gorowsky had to work a little harder than usual to score an empty-netter in Wisconsin’s 3-1 win over Minnesota-Duluth Friday night, but he eventually beat defender Mike Montgomery for his ninth goal of the season.
The next night, Gorowsky had an even easier attempt with a wide-open goal — but couldn’t bury the shot.
In the first period of Saturday’s contest, Bulldogs goaltender Alex Stalock handled the puck and tried to clear it out of the UMD zone, but Gorowsky was waiting for him, using some nifty stickwork to bat the puck out of the air. Knocking it to the ice, Gorowsky was then presented with a rare situation: an out-of-position Stalock with an empty net to shoot at.
“I kind of knew he was going to shoot it, and I was just waiting for it and knocked it out of the air,” Gorowsky said.
But Gorowsky rushed the attempt, sending the shot wide right of the goal. Had he converted, the Badgers would have taken an early 1-0 lead and set the tone for the game.
“It’s extremely frustrating and disappointing,” Gorowsky said. “I had all the time in the world and I just wasn’t focused, or for whatever reason, I missed the net. I missed the net last night on an open-netter. I don’t know what was going on with me this weekend.”
At the time, Gorowsky and Wisconsin had no idea whether the missed opportunity would come back to haunt them in the long run. Looking at the 1-0 final score in favor of Minnesota-Duluth, however, there was plenty of discussion afterward as to its significance.
“I remember reading, when I was a kid, Vince Lombardi used to say there’s so many plays in a game, and you never know which one’s going to make the difference,” Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves said. “Tommy misses that and we create a turnover in our own zone and they capitalize on that. Now you’re really starting to magnify things. But we had chances and we didn’t score.”
“Was it the reason we lost the game? No,” Gorowsky said. “But it would have made the game a lot different. We could have went up 1-0 early on.”
While Gorowsky’s miss may have been the most glaring, it wasn’t the only missed opportunity to score for the Badgers Saturday night. Wisconsin fired 33 shots on Stalock, with a handful of quality scoring chances in the mix.
Still, the missed empty-netter loomed large when it was all said and done.
“It wasn’t the whole game,” UW captain Blake Geoffrion said of Gorowsky’s miss. “There were other chances for us to score throughout the game. Podge (Turnbull) had a nice chance in front where Stalock tried to come out and poke check it and it almost squeezed through his legs. We just didn’t hit the bounces and couldn’t get one past him tonight.”
Stalock entered the series as the top goaltender in the WCHA statistically, with a 2.24 goals against average and a .921 save percentage. Ironically enough, Stalock never had to make a play on the biggest Badger shot of the night.
“Let’s not forget that Stalock’s a pretty good young goaltender,” Eaves said.
“He’s a good goaltender, and he’s an athletic kid,” Geoffrion said. “Hats off to him on that one.”
