The prediction came nearly two months ago.
"Tomorrow's the day. Have the balloons and streamers ready. Get the clowns ready," Teague Willits-Kelley yelled while walking into the Penn State ACHA Division I Icers locker room following a Dec. 2 game against Delaware.
Willits-Kelley was not alerting those listening to get ready for a birthday party, but for the celebration that he envisioned happening the next day when the Icers faced the Blue Hens again, when he was sure he was going to score his first goal of the season.
Nine games later, 28 into the season, his prediction was finally realized.
With 17:34 remaining in the third period of Friday's win against No. 8 Michigan-Dearborn, Willits-Kelley redirected a blast from freshman defenseman Steve Thurston to beat Dearborn goaltender Stephen Yu. The goal put the No. 1 Icers up 8-3. They would go on to win 10-5.
"It feels good," the State College native said after the game. "I don't put a lot in the net. I play a different style, but when they come, they feel good."
While it took Willits-Kelley, a senior assistant captain known for his passionate and hard-hitting play, 28 games to notch his first score of the season, it took him just one game to score his second. In the third period of Saturday afternoon's 5-3 victory, which extended the Icers' current winning streak to 17 games, he scored off a pass from sophomore forward Paul Zodtner to give the Icers a 5-2 lead.
After the game, Willits-Kelley was more than happy with how the weekend unfolded.
"I'm flying high right now," Willits-Kelley said. "I feel great. The team is doing well. We're on a run. I got the monkey off my back, popped another one today, and kind of took a little bit more of the edge off. So I feel good and I feel confident in the way the team's playing. I can't wait to play next weekend."
During the scoring drought, Willits-Kelley was not as excited, in fact, quite the opposite.
"It was getting discouraging," he said.
He sought suggestions from teammates, coaches and even the team's sports psychologist. But on the ice, Willits-Kelley didn't change his playing style. Any fan who has seen an Icers game this season can attest to that. As the weeks went on though, he kept listening to what those around him were saying. One recent piece of advice particularly stuck.
"[Icers defenseman] Keith Jordan had starting saying something last weekend," Willits-Kelley said. "He said, 'Don't think about scoring goals. Go out and think about getting five shots on goal.' So I started concentrating more on that, and it just dropped this weekend."
Willits-Kelley also credited Icers head coach Joe Battista for giving words of encouragement throughout the season, even as recently as the day before the game against the Wolves, when the two met after practice.
"I just said, 'You really just gotta relax. You gotta have fun. It's going to happen when you least expect it. Just make sure that you're working hard and good things will happen,' " Battista said.
Now, the waiting for the first goal to come is a thing of the past, and Willits-Kelley sees more goals on the horizon.
"Teague said that he's coming after me in the goal-scoring race. He told me he only has 30 more to go, so he's catching up," freshman Luke DeLorenzo said.
While it's unlikely that Willits-Kelley will capture the team's scoring title anytime soon, he now can certainly breathe a sigh of relief.
"You could tell he was frustrated," Battista said. "It never stopped him from working hard, blocking shots, talking out on the ice, leading by example for the younger guys. He kept a positive attitude and was actually making light of it for a while, but I'm glad he loosened up, and I'm glad to see he's broken the slump."
