The New York Rangers found themselves in a very precarious situation when they lost goalie Antti Raanta to injury during the first period of their game against the Minnesota Wild on Thursday. After just 13:49 of game action, Raanta took a hard shot right off his mask and was shaken up. That forced Henrik Lundqvist, who was due to sit out, into action. So who on earth could the Rangers call upon if Lundqvist was injured?
Santino Vasquez, that's who.
I know what you're thinking. Who is Santino Vasquez?
Well, he is a former goaltender for Division III Hamline University who the Rangers called up to be their emergency backup goalie just in case Lundqvist went down.
Over the two years he played for Hamline, located in St. Paul, Minnesota, public statistics show that Vasquez appeared in two games for a total of 46:47 of game action. And for one night, he was one injury away from having to step between the pipes for the New York freaking Rangers.
Who doesn’t love a good emergency backup goalie story?
Well it gets better. It turns out that Vasquez, who says he also played some semipro hockey in the Czech Republic, was watching the game on TV when he got the call. Because he lived so close to the Xcel Energy Center, he was able to make it in time to be a Ranger for a night. He even got to share his story with Brian Murphy of the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Caught up with Santino Vasquez of St. Paul who was watching #mnwild-Rangers on TV when called to be emergency goalie behind Henrik Lundqvist
— Brian Murphy (@murphPPress) December 18, 2015
And the young man certainly doesn't lack confidence.
Vasquez: "I literally live 2 minutes away over the bridge. I would have been ready to play. They wouldn’t have scored on my every shot."
— Brian Murphy (@murphPPress) December 18, 2015
Vasquez: "I was just in here stretching, just hanging out, staying relaxed. I don’t really get too nervous." #mnwild @NYRangers
— Brian Murphy (@murphPPress) December 18, 2015
Put him in, Coach!
When word first spread among the New York beat writers about the emergency backup and then made it to Twitter, Vasquez briefly became somewhat of a celebrity. Rangers fans were having a lot of fun with it on Twitter, and some were openly pining for him to get some game action in what turned out to be a rough one for the Rangers.
Because Vasquez could technically have entered the game at one point, he now has a hastily created and sparsely populated player page on NHL.com.
Though Alain Vigneault undoubtedly would never have tapped the emergency backup on the shoulder, maybe -- just maybe -- he considered it for a half second when the game got away from the Rangers. The Wild scored three goals in the third period en route to a 5-2 victory.
According to the piece Murphy wrote for the Pioneer Press adding a little more context to this unique situation, Vasquez never made it to the Rangers' bench. He spent much of the evening in his gear in an auxiliary locker room after getting the call from the Wild's strength and conditioning coach to get to the arena as fast as he could.
Meanwhile, Santino Vasquez earned a night of notoriety, some brief Internet fame, the chance to say he was Henrik Lundqvist's backup, and as the NHL CBA is supposed to require for emergency backup goaltenders, $500 and his game-worn (kind of) Rangers jersey. Not bad for a guy that started the game on his couch.
