We often see NHL head coaches pull their goalies late in games to make up a deficit in order to take the game to overtime, or simply to win in regulation time.
We’ve seen a few stories where the coach decides to pull his goalie very early in the game, usually when there’s a bigger deficit to make up.
We’ve seen Patrick Roy do it, but what about those who pull their goalie in overtime?
Well, the Minnesota Wild decided to bench Marc-André Fleury in favor of a fourth forward in overtime.
And it worked:
Minnesota, needing 2 points, pulled the goalie in OT. If the Predators had scored, the Wild would have got 0 points. What a gamble https://t.co/7VoNfOBSgy
– Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) March 10, 2024
The Wild set up in the offensive zone and seconds after pulling Fleury, Matt Boldy made it happen in the overtime period.
Incidentally, the last time a scenario like this happened was in 2017, when the Bruins won their bet.
The @mnwild scored the overtime winner with an extra attacker that was not due to a delayed penalty. The last team to score a goal in that scenario was Los Angeles on Oct. 28, 2017 against Boston.#NHLStats: https://t.co/Rm4Bk2ReWe https://t.co/BXeMoaRqWr
– NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) March 11, 2024
Interestingly, if the Predators had scored the winning goal in the empty net, the Wild would have received no points.
That’s what Elliotte Friedman said in response to a reader:
In OT, if you pull the goalie and get scored on, you lose the point already earned. https://t.co/j5kN7y1eBk
– Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) March 10, 2024
I wasn’t aware of this rule, but it’s a good way to use this tactic only when necessary.
The Wild are in the thick of the playoff race and they need every point they can get to make the playoffs.
And as long as they’ve gone to overtime, they might as well give themselves as many chances as possible to come out on top.
However, this gamble could have been very costly for the Wild, who would have lost the point they earned for going to overtime.
At the time of writing, the Wild are in 5th place in the Central Division, with the St. Louis Blues just behind, who have a two-game lead over John Hynes’ team after this game.
To reach the playoffs, the Wild will have to get past either the Vegas Golden Knights, the Los Angeles Kings or the Nashville Predators.
Imagine if the Wild had lost this game to Nashville…
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