Chip Off The Old Block

If goaltending is an artform, it's probably helps to have a mentor at home. The two men to the left shared a household for a while as father Robb Stauber, seen with the Los Angeles Kings, was one half of the parenting duo to Jaxson Stauber, seen with the AHL's Rockford IceHogs. I'm going to believe that Jaxson found his way into goaltending thanks to dad playing the position in a number of leagues, including the NHL, but it's pretty clear that Jaxson's carving his own path in hockey. Tonight, Jaxson may have one-upped one of dad's hockey moments as the Staubers officially share a rare hockey achievement!

We'll dive into a little history to pull Robb's moments from the archives. On October 9, 1995, the Rochester Americans were in Charlottetown, PEI to play the Prince Edward Island Senators. I went hunting for as many details as I could find, but it seems the internet doesn't keep these records very well. Nonetheless, with time winding down in the game, Rochester Americans netminder Robb Stauber scored a goal into the empty net to give the Americans the victory, and Robb Stauber became the eighth goaltender in AHL history to be credited with a goal.

UPDATE: the AHL's Twitter account has video of Robb Stauber's goal!


From that paragraph and video above, you likely know where this is going as I'm a fan of goalie goals, so let's get to the action tonight where the Rockford IceHogs were hosting the Chicago Wolves.
Jaxson Stauber becomes the 23rd AHL goaltender to be credited with a goal after he fired the puck down the ice into the yawning Chicago cage for the 4-0 lead at the 19:00 mark of the third period. He's not the first IceHogs netminder to record a goal - Collin Delia did that against Texas on December 17, 2021 - but Stauber became the first AHL netminder to score a goal and record a shutout in the same game as Stauber also recorded his first professional clean sheet!

What makes this goal special outside of the normal celebrating I do for goalie goals is that Jaxson's goal means that he and his dad, Robb, become the first father-son goaltending connection to record goals in the history of the AHL. That's a record that can only be equalled now, but I'm not certain there are a lot of other goalies who have sons who are goalies who would be eligible for equalling this feat. In short, this may be one of those records that stands for a long time!

Here's the updated list of AHL goalies scorers.

• 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
• Alex Nedeljkovic, W-B/Scranton – Nov. 17, 2023 at Providence
• Jaxson Stauber, Rockford - Feb. 16, 2024 vs. Chicago

Congratulations to Jaxson Stauber for his goal tonight, recording his first shutout, setting an AHL record with his dad, for becoming the 22nd goalie in the history of the AHL to be credited with a goal, and for becoming the first goaltender in AHL history to record a shutout in the same game as scoring a goal! There will likely never be another night of accomplishments in Jaxson Stauber's life quite like this one, but he still has a chance to cap off this season with a Calder Cup championship as well!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!