Former Ottawa Senators goalie Filip Gustavsson has the first goalie goal in Minnesota Wild history. With the Wild leading the St. Louis Blues 3-1 on Tuesday night, the Blues pulled their goalie in favour of an extra attacker.
From five feet outside the blue line, Pavel Buchnevich took a hard slapshot that Gustavsson caught easily like a first baseman. In effect, Buchnevich served up the shooting opportunity to Gustavsson on a silver platter.
The goalie immediately dropped the puck and had all day to launch the puck over top of everyone, shooting his way into NHL history.
According to ESPN, it’s the 18th goalie goal in NHL history and only the third power-play goal by a goalie all-time.
Social media was abuzz with jokes about Gustavsson having more goals this season than Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid.
After acquiring him in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Gustavsson spent five seasons with the Ottawa Senators organization. The Senators protected him in the 2021 Seattle expansion draft but lost future Kraken starter Joey Daccord. Gustavsson was then traded to Minnesota straight up for Cam Talbot, who the Sens let walk after one season here.
Gustavsson made 27 saves in the Wild’s 4-1 win. Former Senator Mathieu Joseph had the only goal for the Blues.