The Icers lost. No wait, they won. Better yet, let's go to overtime!
Confused?
Welcome to the mindset of every person in attendance at tonight's season-opening Penn State Icers game.
With the score tied at 3 in the waning seconds, a Towson penalty gave the Icers a late powerplay.
However, moments after the ensuing faceoff, Towson grabbed control of the puck and rushed ahead on a breakaway, leaving everyone behind -- including the officials.
As the puck slid past Teddy Hume into the back of the net, the closest official was at the center ice line with no view of the puck apparently.
After clearly hitting the back of the net and bouncing out, none of the refs blew their whistles or signaled a goal as Towson began to celebrate and its bench erupted.
Tim O'Brien, after slamming his stick against the glass in frustration, grabbed the loose puck -- in response to his coaches' screams to keep playing -- and put it in Towson's net as they all celebrated by the bench.
The officials all came together as Towson's coaches shouted in their direction, part in disbelief, part in anger. The official ruling came back that the puck hit the post and did not go in, but since the scoreboard operator stopped the clock, play stopped, as well (meaning Penn State's "goal" didn't count either).
After clearing up that situation, the last 12 seconds of regulation was uneventful before Penn State freshman George Saad ended the game early in overtime, leaving Towson wondering what had just happened.
Teddy Hume's response to being asked whether the puck went in the net or not? A smile, followed by, "No answer."
Steve Thurston wasn't so shy about answering the question. He said it was obvious the puck went in the net and has no idea how the officials missed it.
So did the puck go in the net or bounce off the post? Well, let's put it this way: There was no "ping" noise, Hume hung his head immediately after the puck got by him, O'Brien swung his stick like a baseball bat into the boards and every Tiger thought they had just won the game.
So even though both teams seemed to have scored four goals tonight, Penn State gets the one that counts and skates away with the victory, 4-3.
