There are teams that find unfortunate ways to concede a goal and then there are teams that concede a goal without even realizing they have done so.
Unfortunately for them, the Carolina Hurricanes belong to the latter category. On Thursday night, with just over eight minutes of their game against the Arizona Coyotes played, Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward positioned himself to make a save and planted his leg entirely into his goal.
However, play was stopped after it became apparent the puck was missing, before a linesman managed to pry it free from Ward's right skate.
Unbeknown to the goalie, the puck had got stuck in his skate, meaning Ward scored a goal by stretching his right leg into the net.
"That first one was probably one of the weirdest goals I've ever seen," Ward's teammate Jeff Skinner was quoted as saying by ESPN.
The NHL situation room reviewed the bizarre incident and eventually awarded the goal to Coyotes defenseman Alex Gologoski, who had sent the puck around the boards before it got jammed into Ward's skate.
"Upon review of the play, the puck is caught in the goaltender's skate," announced referee Dan O'Rourke.
"His skate crosses the line completely. So we have a goal."
The incident came after the Hurricanes had gone 2-0 up thanks to goals from Skinner and Valentin Zykov and sparked a revival for the Coyotes, who tied the game with 22 seconds left in the first period thanks to Clayton Keller.
Josh Archibald drew the Coyotes level after Phil Di Giuseppe had put the Hurricanes in front again, before Nick Cousins and Gologoski scored either side of a Teuvo Teravainen goal in an action-packed second period.
In the final 20 minutes, Zykov and Skinner both claimed their second personal goals of the game to give the Hurricanes a 6-5 win.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Dan Cancian is currently a reporter for Newsweek based in London, England. Prior to joining Newsweek in January 2018, he ... Read more
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