Jeff Le-Imagn Images
The Minnesota Wild just had their first goalie goal in franchise history, thanks to Filip Gustavsson.
Gustavsson recorded his first career NHL goal in the Wild’s 4-1 win over the St. Louis Blues Tuesday night. It was the 16th regular-season goalie goal in NHL history and 18th in the regular season and playoffs. And it came on the power play.
“I should be on the power-play meetings now,” Gustavsson told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan post-game.
Minnesota held a 3-1 lead entering the final 20 seconds of regulation at Enterprise Center in St. Louis. Blues left winger Pavel Buchnevich fired a slapshot from center ice right at Gustavsson, who caught the puck and dropped it to the ice. With nobody on the opposition near him and with plenty of space, Gustavsson took the opportunity to go for the goal.
He shot the puck high as Blues center Robert Thomas jumped to try to block the attempt. His two Blues teammates behind him swung their sticks high above their heads to try to prevent the goal as well, but they missed.
The puck landed in the high slot at the other end of the ice with nobody else around, and it skipped into the net to make team history.
The Wild players on the ice all came to give Gustavsson a big hug behind the net in celebration. The goaltender then made his way to the bench for high fives.
Gustavsson becomes the second Swedish goalie in NHL history to score, following Linus Ullmark, who scored against the Vancouver Canucks in February 2023.
The 26-year-old from Skelleftea, Sweden, gave Marc-Andre Fleury credit for the heads-up.
“I come to the bench here on the timeout, and Fleury’s like, ‘Hey, you going to try to shoot it if you get it now when we’re up two goals?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, actually, I should shoot it,” Gustavsson told Kaplan. “And then, it’s a perfect dump there to the goal. I just catch it, just trying to put it down as soon as possible. I didn’t know I could shoot that far in the air – it’s great I got it in there.”
The NHL has now seen goalie goals in each of the past three seasons, which is tied for the longest run in league history. Pittsburgh Penguins netminder Tristan Jarry scored on Nov. 30 last season, preceded by Ullmark in 2022-23.
As for the rest of his performance, Gustavsson stopped 27 of 28 shots. He’s now 2-0-1 so far this season with a 1.66 goals-against average and .948 save percentage.
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