By Jake Courtepatte

Only seven minutes of ice time, but a memory to last a lifetime.

Aurora native Barclay Goodrow put the icing on the cake of the NHL's San Jose Sharks' first round series with the Vegas Golden Knights late last week, burying the overtime winner that marked an incredible late-game comeback for the Sharks to move on to round two.

Goodrow, a regular fourth-liner on only his second shift of the extra frame, called it the “biggest goal of his career.”

“To be honest, I can't really remember what just happened,” Goodrow told a massive media scrum following the game. “It was a pretty surreal moment.”

With the Sharks down 3 – 1 late in the third period, the team went on a five-minute major powerplay that saw them score four goals to take the lead. The Golden Knights managed to tie it up late to force the overtime, before Goodrow put the series to bed.

“Game Seven, overtime, NHL playoffs,” Goodrow told TSN's Ray Ferraro. “I had tons of energy. I was sitting there most of the overtime, so when I got the call, I figured I may as well use my fresh legs, and make it create something.

The former 114-point star of the York-Simcoe Express commended star defenseman Erik Karlsson with finding him to produce the game-winning goal.

“I saw him get the puck, I saw the (defenseman) was a little flat-footed…I was hoping he would get the puck to me as I'm getting behind the D-man…(Karlsson) is a world-class player, so I was just happy to get it around (Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre) Fleury there.”

Barclay's hockey career began with the Optimist hockey program in Aurora, a precursor to reaching the Aurora Minor Hockey program for five and six-year-olds. He moved on to the Aurora Tigers AA ranks early in his career, before spending his final five years of minor hockey with the Express program, winning a total of five OMHA championships between his stints with the Tigers and the Express.

He joined the Country Day School hockey team upon the program's reintroduction in his Grade Eight year, skating for the Cyclones for three years.

The 2018-19 season marked Goodrow's rise to the top ranks, playing in all 82 games for the first time in his NHL career. After five seasons with the OHL's North Bay Battalion and going unpicked in the NHL Entry Draft, Goodrow signed with the Sharks in 2015.

He posted seven goals and ten assists in the regular season this year.