Holy Hofer!

I'm a little late to the party on this one, but regular readers of Hockey Blog In Canada know that I'll stop what I'm doing for a goaltender goal any time one is scored. I was all prepared to write a piece on how Sidney Crosby may have a whole new cast of people around him next season with the decisions the Penguins have to make in the off-season, but that went out the window when I was alerted of a player's first goal in his career. That player is the guy you see to the left in Joel Hofer, and he normally defends the net for the Springfield Thunderbirds when he's not scoring goals. Tonight, though, is all about Joel Hofer scoring because he did something awesome!

We roll back to Friday night as the Springfield Thunderbirds were hosting the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in Game Two of the Atlantic Division semifinal. We pick the game up with four minutes to play and Springfield leading 4-2 in the game and 1-0 in the series.

That's a playoff goal for goaltender Joel Hofer, and it makes the first time in his career that he's scored a goal at any level! Beyond that, it marks only the second time in AHL history that a goaltender has scored in the Calder Cup Playoffs, and it came in Hofer's first-ever Calder Cup playoff game! For those asking, Max Legace of the Chicago Wolves is the only other netminder to score in the AHL postseason, doing so on May 25, 2019 in San Diego against the Gulls!

Hofer, who won his first NHL game this season on November 5, 2021 against the San Jose Sharks, has been making history at each of his hockey stops. In that NHL game, he became the first goalie to record an assist in his NHL debut since Jason Bachashihua did it for the Blues on December 16, 2005 against the Chicago Blackhawks, and Hofer also became the youngest Blues goaltender to win his NHL debut, besting the mark by Michel Plasse back on March 30, 1971. That assist he recorded? It moved him into elite company as well as he became just the fifth goaltender in NHL history to win and record a point in their NHL debut, joining the likes of Alex Auld, David Goverde, Ron Tugnutt and Bob Froese!

It's been a wild 18 months for Hofer as the netminder was named the Best Goaltender and part of the Media All-Star Team at the 2020 World Junior Championship after helping Canada win the gold medal over Russia. The Winnipeg-born goalie led the Portland Winterhawks to an incredible 45-11-7 record in the WHL before the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic as Hofer was 34-8-5 with a 2.49 GAA and a .915 save percentage. It's hard to imagine that the Winterhawks would have struggled in the playoffs, but it seemed that Hofer was poised to help Portland make a deep run in the playoffs towards the Memorial Cup.

After the Blues assigned him to the Utica Comets in 2020-21, he earned his first professional win on April 13, 2021 in a 5-1 win over the Syracuse Crunch. His first professional shutout followed a week later when he blanked the Binghamton Devils in a 3-0 Utica win.

With the Blues securing an AHL affiliation with the Springfield Thunderbirds, Hofer settled in this season with an 18-14-7 record, a 2.96 GAA, and a .905 save percentage in helping Springfield to a second-place finish in the Atlantic Division with a 43-24-9 record. That led to an opening-round series with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in a best-of-five series that saw Charlie Lindgren win Game One before the historic moment above set by Hofer.

"I told myself 'Don't go for it', it's the playoffs and a big game, preserve the lead kind of thing. I obviously got the puck, handled it well and then had more time than I thought and I was just like, 'Screw it, go for it.'," Hofer told reporters after the game. Clearly, that was a good decision based on the outcome as Hofer's goal helped Springfield secure a 2-0 lead in the series over the Penguins in the best-of-five series.

The good news? Springfield won again tonight by a 7-6 score to finish off the sweep of the Penguins and advance to the Atlantic Division Final where they await either the Charlotte Checkers or the Bridgeport Islanders. Lindgren was back in the net for tonight's Game Three action, but it takes nothing away from what Joel Hofer did on Friday night in scoring his first career goal!

Hofer is officially the 18th AHL netminder to record a goal, and it couldn't have come at a better time in helping his team get closer to a Clader Cup championship. Congratulations to Joel Hofer on his goal and the Thunderbirds on their series win, and here's hoping this isn't the last goal we see from this future St. Louis Blues goaltender!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!