One Back Of Skinner

The man to the left celebrating like he won the lottery is goaltender Todd Scott of the USHL's Tri City Storm. Scott's career has seen him bounce around the continent from places like his hometown of Albertville, Minnesota to Omaha, Nebraska to Sioux City, Iowa to Vancouver, BC before finding himself on a three-year stint with the WHL's Edmonton Oil Kings. Scott's game steadily improved while with Edmonton, and that prompted the USHL's Tri City Storm to sign him as a 19 year-old to defend their nets. It was off to Kearney, Nebraska, some three-and-a-half hours west of Omaha as Scott returned to a state he played in at the U16 level.

None of those moves really relate to today's story, but it gives you a background on what it takes to find some permanence in a young player's career when chasing down the hockey dream. Outside of his stint in Edmonton, Todd Scott never really found a place where he stayed longer than a couple years, and that one place where he did was Omaha. In his second season in Kearney with the Storm, though, Scott has shown he's a solid starting netminder in delivering a 17-8-2 record with a 2.36 GAA and a .905 save percentage. And a new statistic that appeared on his career USHL stats after Saturday night.

Saturday night, Scott was tending the net for Tri City as they battled the Sioux Falls Stampede. Things were going well as time wound down with the Storm scoring two goals in the final give minutes to give Scott a little breathing room in his net when the puck was dumped into the Storm zone. Let's go to the video! With 28 seconds remaining in the game, Scott fired the puck 200-feet down the ice, began the celebration seconds before the lamp lit, and then continued to celebrate like a madman once the red light flashed to signal a goal. The scoresheet officially shows Scott scoring an unassisted empty-net goal, Scott becomes the fifth USHL goalie to add his name to the goal-scoring prowess of the league as he joins Mikhail Berdin, Jared Rutledge, Jon Gillies, and Ryan Massa as the only USHL goalies to light the lamp.

The irony? Mikhail Berdin was the last goalie to score in the USHL when he played for none other than the Sioux Falls Stampede who were the victims to Tony Scott's goal tonight.

I made mention off the top about Scott looking like he won the lottery, and perhaps he may have. With the Buffalo Sabres struggling to score goals of any kind, they might want to reach out to Scott to help their offence. After all, the Sabres are paying Jeff Skinner $9 million annually, and Scott's now one goal behind him for the season. It seems like Scott's due for a big payday if his agent can show he's a heckuva netminder as well as an elite goal scorer!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!