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Halak Scores First Goal For Red Wings

If you missed this in the game against Detroit, it was kind of an amazing turn of events.

The Red Wings had two players deep on a line change. The puck came out high between the circles and Drew Miller who had been on the ice an estimated three seconds got the puck and got off a shot with a Blues defender right in front of him. So you could kind of make the excuse that Jaroslav Halak was screened. But that's about where the defense ends. Literally.

Halak handled the surprising shot fairly easily, but the rebound came straight up in the air, right in Halak's eyes. His reaction was to take his stick and swipe it into the corner. Unfortunately, he hit the puck twice. First contact was on the wide area at the top of the blade, but it wasn't enough to get the puck out of the way of his follow through because he hit it again at the bottom of the blade of his stick. That second contact put the puck squarely in his own net. And as the announcers on the Detroit broadcast mentioned, that's a stroke penalty while chipping around the green during golf.

While the goal wasn't the winning margin in a 7-4 game, but you could maybe argue that it takes a lot of skill to pull that trick off. You'll see goaltenders hit the puck away safely 100 times or more without seeing the puck even coming close to replicating the score. And that continues to confirm for me that Halak is a special goaltender. See for yourself.