Goalie Goals!

This heavily-armoured hockey player is Lukas Dostal. The Czechia-born netminder is currently toiling for the AHL's San Diego Gulls after having been drafted 85th-overall in the third round of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft. Dostal's path to the NHL took him to the SM-Liiga in Finland where he played with Ilves Tampere before landing in San Diego last season, and his work this year has seen him called up for three appearances with the Anaheim Ducks. So far, the 21 year-old netminder is 1-1-0 in those appearances, posting a 4-3 shootout win over the Detroit Red Wings on January 9, 2022. Since then, he's been doing all sorts of great things with the Gulls.

If the title didn't give away why I'm talking about Lukas Dostal tonight, perhaps this paragraph will. With the Gulls leading the Colorado Eagles by a 4-2 score late in the third period, the Eagles opted to pull their goalie for the extra attacker. That gave Dostal the opportunity he needed to hit the net if he could send the puck 200 feet down the ice. Without further delay, let's go to the video! Dostal's shot down the ice found the back of the Colorado net, making Dostal the 17th goaltender in AHL history to score or be credited with a goal! The current AHL Player of the Week is making a strong case for his second-straight honour as he scored that goal above in the 5-2 victory while making 51 saves in the game! Can we just name him the Player of the Week now or do we need to wait?

I actually missed a couple of goals from the AHL's list of goalies who scored, so let's jump back to December 17, 2021 where Rockford was visiting Texas for one of the tallies. As you may have noticed, Texas scored on their own net in this sequence, but it was determined that the last Rockford player to have touched the puck was goaltender Collin Delia before the Stars sent it into their own empty cage. Delia was credited with the goal, and we had our 16th AHL goal by a goalie in the books!

Back on May 25, 2019, Max Lagace did something no one else had done when he became the 15th goalie to score a goal in AHL history as the Chicago Wolves were in San Diego to play the Gulls in the Calder Cup Playoffs. FYI, this one runs for a little longer. Lagace was the last Chicago player to touch the puck before the San Diego Gulls got their lines crossed and the puck was passed back past everyone into their abandoned net. It would mark the first time in AHL history that a goalie had a goal recorded in the Calder Cup Playoffs in AHL history, making Lagace's goal even more special! How cool is that?

The 17 goalies who have now etched their names into the AHL record book for being recorded as a goal scorer include:

• Darcy Wakaluk, Rochester – Dec. 5, 1987 at Utica
• Paul Cohen, Springfield – Mar. 28, 1992 vs. Rochester
• Robb Stauber, Rochester – Oct. 9, 1995 at Prince Edward Island
• Christian Bronsard, Syracuse – Oct. 30, 1999 at Rochester
• Jean-Francois Labbe, Hartford – Feb. 5, 2000 at Quebec
• Chris Mason, Milwaukee – Oct. 15, 2001 at Utah
• Antero Niittymaki, Philadelphia – Apr. 11, 2004 at Hershey*
• Seamus Kotyk, Milwaukee – Apr. 17, 2005 at San Antonio
• Drew MacIntyre, Manitoba – Feb. 20, 2008 at Chicago*
• Chris Holt, Binghamton – Mar. 19, 2010 vs. Rochester
• Reto Berra, Lake Erie – Jan. 16, 2015 at Chicago
• Jonas Gustavsson, Bakersfield – Mar. 24, 2017 vs. San Diego
• Alex Nedeljkovic, Charlotte – Mar. 10, 2018 vs. Hartford
• Tristan Jarry, W-B/Scranton – Nov. 14, 2018 at Springfield
• Maxime Legace, Chicago - May 25, 2019 at San Diego**
• Collin Delia, Rockford - December 17, 2021 at Texas
• Lukas Dostal, San Diego - March 2, 2022 at Colorado

The two starred goals scored by Niittymaki and MacIntyre were overtime goals, and the double-asterisked goal is, of course, Lagace's playoff goal above. What I find rather fascinating is that of the 17 goalie goals scored in AHL history, only four were scored by the home-team netminder. I don't know why home teams keep being victimized by opposing goalies, but that's the AHL for you!

Congratulations to Lukas Dostal for adding his name to the list of netminder who pulled off the feat, and to both Collin Delia and Max Lagace whose goals I missed, but finally got posted! They don't happen very often, but goalie goals are the best!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!