By Warren Kozireski —
When you Google Penn States senior defenseman today and maybe for eternity, one of the things he may be forever known for in hockey is that he helped kill his own penalty on Halloween night against Wisconsin.
That was due to a mistake by the on and off-ice officials and will likely be part of future referee training modules.
“The refs said I kind of got them in trouble and I laughed and said I’m sorry and I just got confused, Gobetz said. “People were Tweeting about it and the guys had a laugh too which is great. In the heat of battle, stuff can get mixed up.”
But the St. James native is approaching 100 career games played for the Nittany Lions as a steady defensive and physical presence on the blueline. Most fans won’t notice him while on the ice, and that’s a good thing.
“You know when you’re doing a good job, I guess, when you don’t get noticed,” Gobetz said after a January game against Michigan. “That’s what a lot of people say; I don’t mind it.
“The guys in there expect the best from you no matter if you’re playing one game or 25 games. That’s the mindset I have. Being a senior now I know what these games are all about and you have to be ready first shift.”
Now standing 6’2” and 209 lb. Gobetz got his first taste of success helping win a state Catholic High School Athletic Association championship while playing with St. Anthony’s in 2010-11. A season with the Long Island Royals followed before prep school at Salisbury in Connecticut for three years and one year in the USHL in Des Moines before taking his game to State College, PA.
As with most defensive defensemen, he doesn’t pile up a lot of points with two career goals as of mid-January (but one was a game-winner against Ohio State as a sophomore and the other came in an NCAA playoff game) and 14 points.
But he has used his time in college as a Supply Chain Management major and Finance minor wisely as a two-time (so far) Academic All-Big Ten selection. And he has already secured post-graduate employment with Honeywell Aerospace in Phoenix following an internship last summer.
“Penn State has I think the number one program (for my major), so I got recruited at the Career Fair and it worked out.”
But there is still the rest of the regular season, conference playoffs and, hopefully, the NCAA tournament yet to worry about before Gobetz pulls off the Nittany Lions jersey for the last time.
“You look at the few weekends we have left, especially here at Pegula (Ice Arena) and it’s crazy how fast it goes. I remember the seniors saying you won’t believe how fast it goes and I kind of rolled my eyes, but of course they were right. I need to enjoy these last few months here.
And the memories…
“The Big Ten championship was so special being a freshman. A lot of guys play four years and don’t get to hoist that trophy so that was awesome and making the NCAA tournament twice was pretty cool and I’d like to go a little bit deeper. It’s definitely been a blast here with some good memories.
“People said it would take forever for us to win a game, but we’ve been competitive for a while now so definitely proven a lot of people wrong.”
