Own goals in hockey don’t happen very often but they do. Every so often, the puck takes a bad deflection off a defender or goalie or that defender or goalie makes a bit of a gaffe and suddenly the opponents have a goal.
Detroit Red Wings goalie Alex Nedeljkovic took to the ice Thursday night against the Minnesota Wild and he royally messed up in a big way. Nedeljkovic attempted to swat the puck but instead slammed his stick in a way where the puck went through his five hole and put the Wild up 2-1.
OPE WE'RE JUST GONNA SNEAK THIS ONE RIGHT BY YA THERE#mnwild pic.twitter.com/P7yNtdZFfd
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) March 11, 2022
Unlike in soccer, where the person committing the own goal gets put in the stat sheet as the official scorer, hockey goes by the last person who touched the puck from the goalscoring team. So in this case, Joek Eriksson Ek was credited with the goal. Nedeljkovic is probably thinking that’s for the best as he tries to forget about that as soon as possible.
Those on social media reacted to the error. The Red Wings rebounded and went out to a 3-2 lead after the first period. So clearly, the Red Wings weren’t phased by the infamous moment. And for Nedeljkovic, he got a goal (uncredited) and an assist and almost got into a goalie fight. That would’ve been the wildest (pun intended) unofficial Gordie Howe hat trick ever.
Such a classy move by Red Wings goalie Alex Nedeljkovic to pay tribute to the 20th anniversary of Evgeni Nabokov’s famous goal by scoring one of his own. #LGRW #SJSharks
— SnipeCity420 (@SnipeCity420) March 11, 2022
Love being a Wings fan 💀💀 https://t.co/fwbWR0mu4y
— Drew (@ftblDrew) March 11, 2022
Omg. What a horrendous own goal for the Red Wings
— Sam Sklar (@sklarsam_) March 11, 2022
https://twitter.com/onezendad/status/1502083440623161346?s=20&t=wBbLbdcBWstVYtSbZiiZVQ
— The 2nd Frank (@FMGii) March 11, 2022
😂😂😂😂 this is comedy gold https://t.co/QtUgKqe9e6
— Br🅰️y (@RedBirdBray) March 11, 2022
