Nice Story

Sourced from Daily Faceoff

This picture is from a game last Saturday night between the Edmonton Oilers and the Chicago Blackhawks. The Oilers won 7-3. But that was not the main story from the fame The goaltender in the picture is Matt Berlin. Unless you go to the University of Alberta, you probably have never heard of him.

The two goalies for the Oilers are Jack Campbell and Stuart Skinner. A few hours before the game, Skinner got sick. Edmonton needed a back up goalie. Their minor league team is in Bakersfield California. The game was going to start soon so getting a goalie from Bakersfield was out of the question. Matt Berlin is a backup goalie for the University of Alberta Golden Bears. He was doing homework, at the time, when he got a call from the Oilers asking if he wanted to be the backup goalie for the Oilers that night. This is like Santa asking Rudolph if he wanted to lead the sleigh on Christmas Eve.

Homework did not get done. Berlin was going to get to sit on the bench of an NHL game watching Jack Campbell play net He would be doing this wearing an Edmonton Oiler uniform. Sitting on the bench with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. How cool is that.

There is now five minutes left in the game. The Oilers are up 7-3 McDavid goes to coach Woodcroft and says “let’s get the kid in the game” During a timeout, Woodcroft goes to Campbell and asks if Campbell wants to let the kid play the last few minutes. Campbell gets all excited and gives a wholehearted yes. Woodcroft goes to Berlin and says kid you are in net.

The crowd cheers when they see Berlin replacing Campbell. He had one shot and he made a save. He will be an NHL statistic. Goals against average of 0.000 and a save percentage of 1.000. What a way to cap a Saturday. From doing homework to be in net in an NHL game on national tv. Love it.

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: