Stars G Antti Niemi gets win without making a save
Dallas Stars goalie Antti Niemi recorded the easiest win of his NHL career on Tuesday night. He did not have to make a single save.
By
Adam Gretz
•
2 min read
The Dallas Stars are the gift that keeps on giving.
In a league where every team tries to win every game 2-1 by making safe plays and playing low-risk, low-event hockey, the Stars have accepted the fact they are blessed with an exceptionally skilled team and simply try to win every game by scoring as many goals as possible, even if it means that they are going to give up a lot coming back the other way.
On Tuesday night against the Carolina Hurricanes, they took the insanity to an entirely new level.
They not only came away with a 6-5 win after blowing a 5-1 lead in the third period, but they did so with goaltender Antti Niemi getting credit for the win without making a single save. It's one of the many Stars games this season where somebody -- either them or their opponent -- has let a multi-goal lead slip away. Their games are never over, no matter who they are playing or what the score is.
Here is how it all happened.
The Stars stormed out of the gate in the first period, looking like the Harlem Globetrotters on ice, and raced out to an early four-goal lead with a couple of highlight reel plays that they would take into the third period. At that point the Hurricanes started a massive comeback that resulted in them scoring four goals in 11 minutes to tie the game at five. After the fifth Carolina goal, a Jeff Skinner tally with less than seven minutes to play, the Stars pulled starting goalie Kari Lehtonen and replaced him with Niemi.
The Hurricanes failed to register a shot on goal over the remaining 6:43 of regulation.
Because Dallas' Patrick Sharp scored a power play goal with 20 seconds to play to give the Stars a 6-5 win, Niemi ended up being the goalie of record since he entered the game when it was still tied. He gets the win without really needing to do anything.
According to the Hockey-Reference database, Niemi's game on Tuesday is just the fourth time since 1987 that a goalie has been credited with a win during a game where he made zero saves. Oddly enough, former Colorado Avalanche goalie Craig Billington did it twice two years apart in 1996 and 1998. Former Stars goalie Richard Bachman did it in 2013.
None of those goalies played more than 2:32 in their games.
For Niemi, it is his 11th win of the season and the 201st of his career. He has never had an easier one.
Acquired over the summer from the San Jose Sharks and signed to a three-year contract extension to help solidify the position, Niemi has had an eventful year. Along with Tuesday's oddity, he opened the season by becoming the first goalie in NHL history to record two assists in a single game. If he gets into a fight or scores a goal this year, it might be the weirdest goaltending season in NHL history.
