In the final minute of Friday’s matchup between the Binghamton Senators and visiting Rochester Americans, Rochester goaltender Alexander Salak skated to his team’s bench, giving the team an extra skater in an attempt to even the game’s score at three.
After a failed scoring chance by Rochester, B-Sens goaltender Chris Holt received a pass from a teammate. From just outside his own crease, he found himself staring at the 6-foot wide net that Salak once guarded, over 175 feet away at the opposite end of the rink.
“I looked into the middle and there was just one of their guys standing [there], so I just decided to take the icing and maybe we’ll call a timeout,” Holt said. “But as I was about to shoot it I was like, ‘Just throw it on net, whatever, if it’s an icing it’s an icing.’”
“I was going to kill eight more seconds but I just buried my head and shot it as hard as I could and it went right in the net.”
With the goal, Holt became the 10th goaltender in the American Hockey League’s 74-year history to achieve the feat, which sealed a 4-2 Binghamton victory.
“I kind of blacked out for a minute,” Holt said. “They were telling me [from the bench that my celebration] was pretty extravagant — What goalie knows what to do when they score a goal? It’s definitely a memory that’s … going to last a lifetime.”
He added that he is keeping the puck and stick to remember the moment.
The B-Sens opened the game with a 3-0 lead, with two goals by forward Martin St. Pierre.
During a two-on-one opportunity against Salak in the first period, St.Pierre buried a wrist shot into the net following a pass from teammate Josh Hennessy. The players worked to score another goal at 5:48 into the second, when Hennessy set St. Pierre up for a shot that went past Salak as he was screened in front of the net.
“My first goal was just one of those shots but the second goal was a great screen and if the goalie doesn’t see the puck he won’t stop it,” St. Pierre said.
Rochester found a way onto the scoreboard with 0.4 seconds left in the second period after forward Graham Mink tapped a puck past Holt during a scrum in front of Binghamton’s net.
“That goal at the end of the second period changed the momentum — it gave [Rochester] some life and belief and they came out hard in the third period,” said B-Sens head coach Don Nachbaur.
Rochester scored again three minutes into the closing frame, but failed to complete the comeback after Holt scored his empty-net goal.
“It’s a special feat for a goalie,” Nachbaur said. “Getting a shutout is special, but scoring a goal, not many goalies have done that in pro hockey, so Chris joins the club.”
Holt led the B-Sens to another victory the following night, as the team defeated the visiting Albany River Rats by a score of 2-1.
St. Pierre continued his scoring streak by scoring a breakaway wrist shot goal on Albany goaltender Mike Morrison at 13:32 into the first period.
Forward Jonathan Cheechoo gave the team a 2-0 lead in the second period after intercepting a clearing attempt from Morrison behind Albany’s goal, and turned around to shoot the puck into an uncovered net.
“You know the goalie is scrambling to get back to his net, and I wanted to beat him before he had the time to spin around,” Cheechoo said.
Minutes later, Albany forward Oskar Osala answered the score by throwing a shot at Holt where the puck became lost in the goaltender’s equipment before falling behind him into the goal.
As the game progressed, Nachbaur said he felt both teams looked tired, and made mistakes with the puck that led to odd-man rushes.
Albany had several chances to tie the game up late in the third period, but the B-Sens defensive efforts came through to secure the victory.
“Holt was good,” Nachbaur said. “We needed him when we made some mistakes and he made some saves at the end to preserve the win. We need solid goaltending at this time in the year and he’s been providing that for us.”
The two victories ended Binghamton’s seven-game home losing streak.
“We knew [about] that and wanted to break that and come away feeling good about our game to start the weekend off on the right note,” Nachbaur said.
Binghamton closed out the weekend with a 3-2 win over Albany on Sunday, but still remain seven points out of the final Calder Cup playoff seed with nine games remaining on the schedule.
Their next home game is at 7 p.m. Wednesday against the Toronto Marlies.