Hockey is a sport that occasionally produces the bizarre statistical oddity. One of those instances occurred on Friday night when the Minnesota Wild hosted the Vegas Golden Knights. Eric Staal, who had already scored a goal earlier in the night, recorded his second goal of the game … without ever touching the puck.
Take note. Here’s how you score a goal in the NHL without taking a shot.
With time running out in the third period and the Golden Knights trailing the Wild by a couple goals, the Golden Knights decided to pull their goalie. The Wild dumped the puck down the ice with Staal in pursuit. He was hooked by David Perron, and since Staal was essentially the last player in on an empty net, he was awarded an automatic goal due to the obstruction penalty.
Due to the fact no shot was ever taken on the play, there were some weird stats following the game. For example, prior to that moment Staal had one goal on one shot. With his automatic goal, he essentially scored two goals on one shot. That creates a unique shooting percentage of 200%.
Minnesota Wild forward Eric Staal finished the game with 2 goals on 1 shot. 200% shooting percentage. #MNWild pic.twitter.com/pBWDUNs8XT
— Complete Hockey News (@CompleteHkyNews) February 3, 2018
Wayne Gretzky famously said, and Michael Scott later reiterated, that you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Staal may want to dispute that quote following his weird goal against the Golden Knights.
