Cohn completes unique balancing act as NHL goalie contestant, SportsCenter reporter

Cohn is a former collegiate goalie, having played on the SUNY at Oswego women’s ice hockey team. (Tony Florkowski/ESPN)

Former NHL players shot at the tryout goalies. Cohn said, “It was more intense than I thought I’ve ever experienced.” (Tony Florkowski/ESPN)

Cohn realized she “still had her reflexes,” stopping 11 straight shots after letting in the first one she faced. (Tony Florkowski/ESPN)

About 60 goalies took part in the tryout.

Yeah, it entered her mind: “What if?”

“I didn’t think my skills would get me there, but what if the Florida Panthers thought they’d get extra publicity by having a SportsCenter anchor be one of the two finalists?” Linda Cohn said after competing in Monday’s “Goal of a Lifetime” contest to be the team’s backup practice goalie for a day.

“I thought ESPN would let me change my flights, but it didn’t happen, and it didn’t surprise me because the whole tryout was so intense,” she said. “You’ve got to give the Panthers credit – it was very serious, like an intense goalie camp – it was not a stunt!”

Cohn would know about goalie camps, having played on the SUNY at Oswego women’s ice hockey team and for the boy’s team as a senior at Newfield (N.Y.) High School. The Panthers’ event at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Fla., attracted more than 1,500 applications from 42 states and 15 countries.

Not only was Cohn enduring drills and facing live shots from former and current Panthers, she was also on assignment.

“I’ve never done anything like that before – it was a balancing act, reporting and trying to be a practice goalie,” she said. “I knew I wouldn’t be here without my day job – reporting for SportsCenter.”

Cohn’s first “live” TV shot was at 11:30 a.m. ET with another at 1:05 p.m. before her goalie tryout at 1:30, leaving her with a wardrobe malfunction, of sorts.

“I didn’t think leaving my skates on for an hour-and-a-half was a good idea, so I took them off before putting all the equipment on again,” she said. “I felt a tingling in my left foot – I tied the skate too tight – but there’s nothing to do because I didn’t have time to take off 40 pounds of equipment to get down there [and re-tie the skate]. I had to do the reporting, that’s what I was there for.”

And stop shots, an effort which began ominously.

“I let the first one in – it was a bullet, and I thought, ‘Really? High over the stick side? We’re going to start with that?’” she said of facing a live shot for the first time since a charity game three years ago. But then, after stopping the next 11 shots after only being beaten by a real NHL player – Panthers’ left wing Shawn Thornton, Cohn said, “I was really happy, ecstatic, actually.”