A goaltender has scored a goal only 18 times in NHL history. John Hynes has been the goalie’s head coach on two of them.

The first was during Hynes’ run as the Predators coach in Nashville, when Pekka Rinne scored from behind his own net Jan. 9, 2020, against the Blackhawks in Chicago. The second, of course, came Tuesday in St. Louis, when Filip Gustavsson became the 15th goalie to accomplish the feat.

“You could tell both guys, you could tell they were going for it,” Hynes said. “Great to see.”

Gustavsson said he wasn’t thinking about trying it until it was suggested by tandem mate Marc-Andre Fleury during a timeout with 36 seconds left. The Blues had pulled Jordan Binnington just to pull to even strength on a penalty kill.

“Flower looked up to the board and was like, ‘We’re up two goals. You should probably try it if you get the chance. You’re shooting, right?’ ” Gustavsson said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, maybe I should.’ ”

He went after it with gusto, gloving a dump pass from Pavel Buchnevich and dropping it to the ice for an unmolested shot on goal.

“They were probably trying to make me get a whistle and get a faceoff in our zone, and they just put it straight in the glove,” Gustavsson said. “I try and put it down as quick as I could. It just laid perfect there on the ice, and I just tried to shoot it as hard as I could.”

It was a historic cap to an impressive road win over a team that had gone 9-2-0 in its previous nine games against the Wild. Minnesota led from start to finish, and Gustavsson stopped 27 of 28 shots. He had never scored a goalie goal at any level, and the puck was retrieved for posterity.

According to the NHL, Gustavsson is the fourth of those 15 goalies to score a special teams goal, joining Martin Brodeur (2013), Evgeni Nabokov (2002) and Ron Hextall (1989). Gustavsson’s goal pushed Minnesota’s power play success rate to 30.8 percent, sixth in the NHL.

Gustavsson, 26, was a revelation in his first full NHL season, going 22-9-7 with a 2.10 goals against average and .931 save percentage in 37 starts, but last year was tough — 20-18-4 with a 3.06 GAA and .899 save percentage.

Heading into Saturday night’s game at Columbus, Gustavsson is 2-0-1 with a 1.66 GAA and .948 save percentage, 91 saves on 96 shots on goal.

“He put some hard work in this summer and he’s come back in, I think, with the right mindset and learned his lessons from last year and now he’s come in and he’s playing real solid, and you need that,” Hynes said. “Early in the year, sometimes it’s tough to win if you don’t get strong goaltending because the games are a little bit scattered as everyone’s trying to get used to the NHL pace. There’s sometimes breakdowns, systems aren’t totally totally dialed in where they need to be. So, when you can get really quality goaltending early, it gives you the best chance to win.”

Ready to play

As the Wild staggered to the 5-10-4 start, one of the big issues was slow starts. The Wild rarely looked ready to play, and when Dean Evason was replaced by Hynes, they were the NHL’s worst first-period team, outscored 27-15.

It’s early yet, but that hasn’t been an issue for this year’s team, which has points in its first four games (2-0-2) and hasn’t trailed in regulation. The Wild have outscored opponents 4-1 in the first frame, the lone goal coming off a faceoff with 0.7 seconds left during a 2-1 overtime loss at Winnipeg.

Not killing it

Playing without two of its best penalty killers, center Joel Eriksson Ek (nose) and defenseman Jared Spurgeon (lower body), the Wild put together their best penalty kill, going 4-0 against the Blues.

But they’re still not killing it on the PK.

After finishing with the third-worst unit (77.3 percent) last season, the Wild are tied for the fourth-worst PK through four games, three goals in nine chances for opponents (66.7 percent). Those goals have come in 3:11 of shorthanded ice time, second-lowest in the NHL.

GOALIE GOALS

An NHL goalie has scored a goal 18 times in league history. On Tuesday, Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson became the 15th goalie to do it. Here is a list of all them:

Filip Gustavsson, Minnesota at St. Louis, Oct. 15, 2024
Tristan Jarry, Pittsburgh at Tampa Bay, Nov. 30, 2023
Linus Ullmark, Boston at Vancouver, Feb. 25, 2023
Pekka Rinne, Nashville at Chicago, Jan. 9, 2020
Mike Smith, Phoenix vs. Detroit Red, Oct. 19, 2013
Martin Brodeur, New Jersey at Hurricanes, March 21, 2013
Cam Ward, Carolina vs. New Jersey, Dec. 26, 2011
Chris Mason, Nashville vs. Phoenix, April 15, 2006
Mika Noronen, Buffalo at Toronto, Feb. 14, 2004
Evgeni Nabokov, San Jose at Vancouver, March 10, 2002
Jose Theodore, Montreal at NY Islanders, Jan. 2, 2001
Martin Brodeur, New Jersey vs. Philadelphia, Feb. 15, 2000
Damian Rhodes, Ottawa vs. New Jersey, Jan. 2, 1999
Brodeur, New Jersey vs. Montreal, April 17, 1997
Chris Osgood, Detroit at Hartford, March 6, 1996
Ron Hextall, Philadelphia Flyers at Washington Capitals, April 11, 1989
Hextall, Philadelphia vs. Boston, Dec. 8, 1987
Billy Smith, NY Islanders at Colorado Rockies, Nov. 28, 1979

Source: NHL.com

Related Articles

Short-handed Wild earn another point in 2-1 OT loss at Winnipeg

Jesper Wallstedt working to be ready for his next Wild start

Wild practice invaded by Kraken

On the eve of the Wild’s regular season opener, four reasons for optimism

The Wild will start with three goalies. Now what?