Scoring a goal in a hockey game is never an easy feat, let alone in an NHL game, where the best wingers, centers and defensemen are all trying to send the puck deep. But a goaltender scoring a goal in a game? Now that’s next to impossible. In the NHL’s 107-year history, only 15 goalies have defied the odds in memorable ways to score for their teams. If there was a Mount Rushmore for most incredible goalie goals, these following goalies have certainly cemented themselves in history. I present to you the five most incredible goalie goals.
5. Filip Gustavsson, Minnesota Wild (2024)
Courtesy of Scott Kane/AP Photo
Starting strong with the most recent addition to the exclusive goalie-goal club is Filip Gustavsson, a 26-year-old from Skellefteå, Sweden. During the Wild’s game against the St. Louis Blues on October 15, Gustavsson recorded his first ever NHL goal. This makes him the second Swedish goalie and the first Wild goalie in history to score. However, this goal was no ordinary goal; it was scored on the power play. During the final 20 seconds of regulation, Blues left winger Pavel Buchnevich fired a nasty slap shot at Gustavsson, who caught the puck and set it back down on the ice. With no one around him, Gustavsson decided to go for the goal. He fired the puck high as Blues players jumped and held up their sticks to stop the puck, which landed in the high slot at the other end of the rink With no one around to stop it in time, the puck glided right into the net.
His thoughts on having a goal to his name?
“I should be on the power play meetings now,” Gustavsson told ESPN reporter Emily Kaplan in a postgame interview.
4. Tristan Jarry, Pittsburgh Penguins (2023)
Courtesy of Charles LeClaire/Imagn Images
Tristan Jarry started the first season of his five-year contract with the Penguins with a bang, by signing his name in the record books as the first goalie in the franchise to score a goal. During a road trip down south to play the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2023, Jarry aided the Penguins in a comeback win. After being behind early in the game, the Penguins had finally pulled ahead and were leading 3-2. The Lightning opted to pull their goalie, Andrei Vasilevskiy, in favor of having a sixth skater on the ice. With the net open at the other end, Jarry decided to shoot the puck and see what would happen. Much to the shock of fans in attendance, the puck sailed airborne and into the empty net, a distance of nearly 200 feet. Confirming a definite Penguins victory, Jarry’s goal was truly the icing on the cake.
3. Linus Ullmark, Boston Bruins (2023)
Courtesy of Steph Chambers/Getty Images
Coming in at number three is the first ever Swedish goalie and the first and only goalie in Boston Bruins history to score a goalie goal: Linus Ullmark. During the 2023 season, the Bruins were on a streak as the most dominant team in the NHL. Ullmark was also in the running for the Vezina Trophy for the best goaltender in the NHL. If there were any doubts about Ullmark winning the Vezina, this goal surely silenced them. The Bruins were leading 2-1 in their game against the Vancouver Canucks, with the Canucks having an extra skater on the ice. In response to a Canucks’ dump-in, Ullmark skated out of his net, met the puck, lofted it over a line of Canucks players with their sticks high in the air and into the net.
“It’s really hard to describe what I’m feeling right now,” Ullmark told reporters postgame with a huge grin on his face. “I’m just so bloody happy…It’s one of the dreams I’ve always had. I wanted to score a goal.”
2. Ron Hextall, Philadelphia Flyers (1987, 1989)
Courtesy of Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
The runner-up is the first goalie in the NHL to score a goal and one of two goalies to score twice, Ron Hextall. During his rookie season with the Flyers in 1987, in a game against the Boston Bruins, Hextall decided to take advantage of the Bruins’ empty net. With the Flyers up 4-2, Hextall gained possession of the puck and shot it through the air, where it landed just inside the left post of the Bruins’ net.
“I was hoping just to get the puck close,” Hextall said. “I shot it and saw it roll in. It was a great feeling.”
Hextall’s second goal came two years later during the Stanley Cup Playoffs in a game against the Washington Capitals. Hextall cornered the puck behind his net and sniped another nasty goal across the ice and into the Capitals’ net.
Now what makes all of Hextall’s goals especially significant? They were scored with a wooden stick.
1. Martin Brodeur, New Jersey Devils (1997, 2000, 2013)
Courtesy of Ed Mulholland/USA TODAY Sports
At the top of the list as the reigning king of goalie goals is the legendary New Jersey Devils goalie Martin Brodeur, the only goalie to score three goals. His first goal was in the 1997 Stanley Cup Playoffs during a game against the Montreal Canadiens. Much like Hextall’s second goal, Brodeur stopped the puck behind his net and passed a low goal across the ice and safely into the Canadiens’ net. Because his shot was so low, it was a stroke of luck that no Canadiens players were in the neutral zone.
His second goal came three years later during a game against the Philadelphia Flyers. With the Devils’ up 2-1, Brodeur got the chance to score when Flyers’ center Daymond Langkow lost control of the puck near the Devils’ net. After quickly snatching the puck, Brodeur fired it across the ice and into the Flyers’ net. Though the Flyers scored late in the third to make the final score 3-2, Brodeur’s goal was counted as the game winner, making him the first and only goalie to accomplish that feat.
After a 13-year hiatus, Brodeur scored his third goal during a game against the Carolina Hurricanes. Late in the game, Hurricanes’ right winger Patrick Dwyer got a shot on the net at Brodeur. The puck was deflected off Brodeur, where it sailed across the ice and into the Hurricanes’ net. Though Dwyer shot the puck, because Brodeur was the last man to touch the puck, he was credited with the goal.
Though these five goalies have some of the most incredible goals in history, it is important to note that all 15 goalies in the goalie-goal club have accomplished the near impossible. These across-the-ice shots require deadly-accurate aim and insane athleticism. So maybe NHL coaches should take notes…like Gustavsson said, why not put the goalies in the power play meetings?
Edited by Jenna Mandarano
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