Filip Gustavsson gets rare goalie goal in Wild’s win at St. Louis
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Filip Gustavsson made 27 saves for the Minnesota Wild in a 4-1 win at the St. Louis Blues Tuesday night, but it was his goal with nine seconds left that had the hockey world and social media buzzing.
You read that correctly. Gustavsson came the first Wild goalie in franchise history to score a goal in a game. His 164-foot wrist shot found the back of the empty net to seal a win on the second game of a seven-game road trip that will take up the rest of October.
How it happened
The Wild was on a four-minute power play after Ryan Hartman took a high stick that drew blood. The Blues, trailing 3-1 and needing a pair of goals in the final minute, pulled their goalie to get it to 5-on-5. Gustavsson gathered the puck in the closing seconds and fired a shot in the air the length of the ice.
It went in, and the Wild bench went nuts.
Why it matters
Gustavsson is the first Wild goalie to get a goal in a game. He’s just the 15th in NHL history, and it’s the 18th goal ever scored by a goalie. To put they cherry on top, it was a power-play goal. Gustavsson now has more goals than Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid, who have yet to score this season. Kirill Kaprizov and Nathan MacKinnon have one each.
He’s made 91 saves on 96 shots in three starts this season, and he was the subject of a few trade rumors this offseason, with Marc-Andre Fleury and Jesper Wallstedt on the roster.
What the players are saying
During a St. Louis timeout to pull the goalie, Wild players skated to their bench. With a two-goal lead, Fleury told Gustavsson to take a shot if the opportunity was there.
"Textbook," Fleury told reporters after the game.