Oliver Ekman-Larsson scores from his own blueline on Jonathan Bernier as Coyotes down Maple Leafs 3-1
Move over Vesa Toskala, you have company on the YouTube playlist for worst goals ever allowed by a Toronto Maple Leafs netminder.
On Thursday night in a game between two struggling squads, the Arizona Coyotes downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1 at Air Canada Centre and they got their offensive mojo started in the strangest of ways with a record setting goal 5 seconds into the third period.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s arcing rainbow shot on goal from his own blueline, 114 feet away from the Maple Leafs net, skipped under goalie Jonathan Bernier's glove to tie the game at 1.
It was the fastest shorthanded goal to start a period in NHL History and the most unique the 23-year-old has ever scored at any level he has played.
“There is a first time for everything,” said the smiling blue-chip Coyotes defenseman. “I had a couple of chances in the first period but (they) didn’t go in, but then you get a chance like that, (where) you just threw it on net and it bounced in, I got lucky there.”
Call it what you will, but it was goal No. 13 on the season for Ekman-Larsson and you have to believe Bernier felt cursed in some way on the play.
He had stopped all 32 shots he faced through 40 minutes and thought he was “playing pretty good,” until the gaffe, which prompted the ire of the crowd. Less than four minutes later, Martin Hanzel scored the eventual game winner on a stoppable shot from the side of the net.
“I didn’t see it, I lost it in the stands and it just dipped in front of me,” Bernier said of Ekman-Larsson’s goal. “I can’t give up two bad goals and hope to win.”
Bernier has faced the 9th most shots of any goalie in the league this season and has a 16-15-4 record, with 2.71 GAA, a .915 SV% and 2 shutouts. The 26-year-old has struggled in January with a record of 1-7-1 record, 2.90 GAA, and a .896 SV%.
You can’t say it was the type of goal anyone would expect but it was a fitting highlight for a game between two teams rapidly sinking in the standings.
Entering play Thursday, No two teams in the league had a worse run over their previous 10 games.
The Maple Leafs (1-8-1) had just one regulation win while the Coytoes (2-6-2) had earned just six of 20 potential points.
Meanwhile Ekman-Larsson's goal will now live in Maple Leafs' infamy online alongside Vesa Toskala’s misplay on the 197-foot shot by New York Islanders' defenceman Rob Davison in 2008.
As for other Maple Leafs goalies getting burnt by the long puck, there were two other notable examples that came to mind Thursday evening but no YouTube evidence is known to exist as of yet.
Leafs fans of a certain age may remember Sergio Momesso’s pivotal OT goal on Allan Bester in Game 3 of the St. Louis Blues first round series against Toronto in the 1990 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
His marker, scored from outside the Maple Leafs blueline gave the Blues a 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven series which they won in five games.
The Blues struck again against the Maple Leafs in November 1997 when Al MacInnis broke a 2-2 tie from the redline with two seconds remaining in regulation. This time the victim was goalie Felix Potvin.
Toronto Star writer Paul Hunter later cited the play as the turning point in Potvin's career as a Maple Leaf.
"...the MacInnis slapper skipped once and then floated over Potvin's catching glove. Game over. Reputation irreparably damaged.
Potvin was never again viewed in the same positive light. Not by management. Not by the fans. And, most important, not by himself. Even when he played strongly - brilliantly some nights - during the stretch drive last season there was always a sense of foreboding when he stood between the pipes. He had already authored his own inevitable exit.
"Then things started to change, " Potvin told The Star's Rosie DiManno last summer, as he recalled the ripple effects of The Shot. "Whenever I gave up a weak goal, I couldn't stop thinking about it, even while the game was going on. And I never used to be that way." (Paul Hunter / Toronto Star / 01/10/99)
For his part Bernier, acknowledged Larsson's goal rattled him and that he had to be "stronger mentally". The focus now is on what lies ahead.
"It's gonna happen, it happend to Marty (Brodeur) this year and (other) great goalies but it's how you bounce back from it."
Maple Leafs' interim head coach Peter Horachek was of a similar mind.
"He's gotta' have that and I'm sure he wishes he had it back and usually he does (have it), so you gotta roll with that and move on."
They seemed to have put it behind them - the fans should follow suit.
Follow Neil Acharya on Twitter: @Neil_Acharya
