There was probably a lot on David Goodwin’s mind at the Kohl Center tonight.

He passed Tommy Olczyk’s games-played record with his 133rd, and he’s the leader of a team starving for a win on the road against a tough opponent. He just had to set the tempo.The captain’s two goals led the way in No. 10 Penn State’s 6-3 victory over No. 17 Wisconsin.

The Nittany Lions snapped a five-game winless streak against the Badgers, who were riding on a five game win streak. This ship isn’t sinking.

How It Happened

Penn State started off strong — a crucial piece of its game that had been admittedly lacking recently. It got on the board first with a power play wrister from Goodwin 6:50 into the first. Nikita Pavlychev shuffled an excellent pass to Brandon Biro out front who put the Nittany Lions up 2-0 on the Badgers at 9:04.

Then, things almost started to look like the slip away loss to Princeton. Wisconsin scored two goals not even a minute apart to tie things up — one on a neutral ice turnover and one on the power play.

Denis Smirnov found the perfect time to get his swagger back, though. The prolific freshman put away a Goodwin rebound to steal back a Penn State 3-2 lead at 8:06 into the second. A Goodwin one-timer extended that lead to 4-2 at 13:46 and the rest of the period wasn’t too eventful.

Trevor Hamilton decided he wasn’t going to let this slip away on another Wisconsin power play. Just 56 seconds into the final period, he netted a shorthanded goal for a 5-2 lead. Jake Linhart tried to rev up a comeback with a power play goal to make it 5-3 at 16:21, but that was the last time Wisconsin found the back of the net. Zach Saar got an empty-netter at 18:35 for a 6-3 final score.

Player Of The Game

This one’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?

What’s Next

Penn State is back at the Kohl Center tomorrow night to attempt a series sweep of Wisconsin. The puck drops at 7 p.m.