First Goalie Goal Of The Season

If I told you that the Laval Rocket had an Olympian as their goaltender, you may be thinking that Carey Price is on a conditioning stint. I'd point out that the netminder is actually the man to the left as American goaltender Strauss Mann was signed on July 3 by the Canadiens in an effort to strengthen their position in the crease. The former Michigan University goaltender played last season with the AHL's San Jose Barracuda and the ECHL's Wichita Thunder, but he's looking to make a name for himself in La Belle Province with the Laval Rocket. On Wednesday, he may have just accomplished that goal!

Mann was in the Laval net tonight as the Rochester Americans came to town, and things didn't start well for L'Équipe Laval as Rochester's Viktor Neuchev scored just 2:17 into the game. Jiri Kulich made it 2-0 2:19 later, and Kulich struck again at 12:37 on the power-play to make it 3-0. Strauss Mann needed something to spark his team and help him climb out the hole in which Laval found itself.

I don't think anyone expected what happened next, but Laval was killing off a final infraction after running into some penalty problems. And that's when this happened for the first time this season.

As per the official scoresheet, Strauss Mann was credited with the goal as he was the last Laval player to touch the puck before Rochester's Filip Cederqvist centered a pass that missed every Americans player before sliding down the ice into the yawning cage. You might be asking why Rochester had an empty net in the middle of the first period, and that's because there was a delayed penalty called on Laval. What's weird is that I only count five Americans on the ice, so what happened to Rochester netminder Devin Cooley?

Strauss Mann is now the 20th goaltender in AHL history to be credited with a goal, and that list seems to grow by one or two goalies every year. Here are those goalies who have tallied a goal:

• 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 Lagace, Chicago - May 25, 2019 at San Diego**
• Collin Delia, Rockford - Dec. 17, 2021 at Texas
• Lukas Dostal, San Diego - Mar. 2, 2022 at Colorado
• Jesper Wallstedt, Iowa - Nov. 12, 2022 at Chicago
• Pyotr Kochetkov, Chicago - Feb. 3, 2023 vs. Manitoba
• Strauss Mann, Laval - Oct. 18, 2023 vs. Rochester

The two starred goals scored by Niittymaki and MacIntyre were overtime goals, and the double-asterisked goal scored by Lagace was a playoff goal. Of the 20 goalie goals scored in AHL history, just six were scored by the home-team netminder. Of those six, three of them came against the Rochester Americans! How weird is that?

It should be noted that Mann's goal didn't exactly spark the Rocket, but they did push the game into overtime after being down three goals early in the game. Jiri Kulich's hat trick goal was the overtime winner for Rochester as they downed Laval 5-4 in the extra time. Mann finished the night with 30 saves in 63:07 of work, and he added his name to the scoring race after being credited with that first-period goal in this game!

This blog will always post goalie goals because of how awesome they are, so, if you know of other goalies lighting the lamp, make sure you let me know and I'll go hunting for the video to add it to all the great goalie goals on HBIC!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!