Goalie goals are rare. They are so rare that when Cam Ward scored one on Monday night, he was the first goaltender of the Carolina Hurricanes to do so. He also became the first goalie in almost six years to score in an NHL game, going back to Chris Mason in April of 2006.
That's what makes them great. Well, at least Ron Hextall's were great. Ward’s was only great in the rarity sense.
With the Hurricanes ahead in the game 3-2 in the waning moments, New Jersey Devils coach Peter DeBoer pulled his goalie, leaving the cage unattended at the other end. That's when an errant pass from Ilya Kovalchuk to the point slipped out of the zone and all the way down the ice into the open net.
Originally, the goal was credited to the Hurricanes' Brandon Sutter as he came incredibly close to grazing the puck on its way by. But after the game both Sutter and Kovalchuk said Sutter didn't alter the pass, that meant the last Hurricane to touch the puck gets credit for the goal, and that's Cam Ward.
"It was Wardo's. As soon as it went in, I think we all knew it was his," Sutter said. "And then the ref kind of came up to me and asked what happened. He asked who touched it last, and it was [Ward]."
As we said, not spectacular. It's more likely to end up on the blooper reels than highlight reels. But it's still awesome.
"It would have been a lot cooler if I had shot the puck or did something like that," Ward said
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