Sports

Inside the Wild’s Filip Gustavsson’s perfectly aimed goalie goal

Published

1 year ago

October 17, 2024

Inside the Wild’s Filip Gustavsson’s perfectly aimed goalie goal

ST. LOUIS – Marc-Andre Fleury, wearing his black Wild baseball cap backward, had a front-row seat to history Tuesday night, but he was the one who planted the seed in Filip Gustavsson’s head in the first place.

Then, as if Fleury diagramed the play for his goalie partner himself, the St. Louis Blues’ Pavel Buchnevich cooperated fully with a perfectly placed 79-foot shot directly toward the Wild logo at the center of Gustavsson’s chest.

Gustavsson caught the puck with his trapper for his 27th save, dropped it in his blue crease, took aim and sailed a beauty the length of the ice for a bull’s-eye — the final goal in a 4-1 Wild win.

It was the first goalie goal in team history and Gustavsson is the 15th goaltender in NHL regular season history to score a goalie goal.

“That was unexpected,” goalie coach Freddy Chabot said at the press elevator after the game.

“That was awesome,” general manager Bill Guerin said. “You don’t see a goalie goal every day.”

“A power-play goal,” pointed out assistant GM Michael Murray.

GOALIE GOAL! GOALIE GOAL! GOALIE GOAL! 🚨 pic.twitter.com/NS3CsKb9ge
— NHL (@NHL) October 16, 2024

With 34 seconds left in the Blues’ home opener and St. Louis trying to kill a double minor, coach Drew Bannister called timeout seeking a miracle with his team down two.

Fleury had other plans.

“I called a quick goalie meeting,” Fleury said, laughing.

Gustavsson skated over to the bench and got some advice from the wise future Hall of Famer.

“Flower looked up to the board and was like, ‘We’re up two goals. You should probably try it if you get the chance. You’re shooting, right?’” Gustavsson recalled. “I was like, ‘Yeah, maybe I should.’”

Gustavsson had never scored a goal at any level of hockey. He’d never consider it with a one-goal lead because if he missed, it would be an icing and an offensive-zone faceoff for the Blues.

“Up 2-nothing, I was like, ‘Yeah, if I get the chance, I’ll try it,’” Gustavsson said.

And then he got his chance.

Gustavsson figures Buchnevich was shooting the puck directly at him so he’d catch it, freeze it and give the Blues a late faceoff. But instead, Buchnevich “just put it straight in the glove and I tried and put it down as quick as I could,” Gustavsson said. “It just laid perfect there on the ice, and I just try and shoot it as hard as I could.”

As Fleury said, “Textbook.”

Celebrating the first goalie goal in @mnwild history! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/X5ciE7FTea
— NHL (@NHL) October 16, 2024
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Chabot, the Wild’s goalie coach of five seasons, likes to do fun things with his goaltenders in practice.

One of the coolest looking is when he’ll have one goalie stand directly in front of the other to set one ginormous screen. Chabot will then whistle dead-accurate shots to the left, then to the right, then back to the left … over and over and over again on either side of the screening goalie so the one in the crease has to fight to find the puck.

But the most fun drill he conducts is goalie goals.

Former Wild goalie Kaapo Kahkonen was a goalie goal machine in his native Finland. Current Wild prospect Jesper Wallstedt, a fellow Swede like Gustavsson, has scored goalie goals, too, including with Iowa in the AHL.

“I expected that from Wally,” Chabot said. “Not Gus.”

What shocked Chabot the most was that he has never seen Gustavsson in any of their practices shoot the puck as high as he did.

“I usually complain about my curve not being the right angle to get it that high,” Gustavsson said. “But I don’t know, extra powers or something.”

Most cool, according to ESPN, this was the third power-play goal by a goalie in NHL history (Evgeni Nabokov in 2002 and Martin Brodeur in 2013). He’s the second Swede to ever score a goalie goal, according to NHL Stats (Linus Ullmark in 2023).

Hilariously, Guerin walked into the locker room to congratulate Gustavsson, then asked Fleury if he had ever scored one. Fleury knew full well his former Penguins teammate knew he had not, then cracked up and threw a towel at the Wild boss.

After he scored, Gustavsson was mobbed by his teammates on the ice — Brock Faber, Jonas Brodin, Marcus Foligno, Yakov Trenin and Marat Khusnutdinov.

Jakub Lauko’s first Wild goal is a shorthanded beauty. 2-0 #mnwild pic.twitter.com/gLS19TpTcs
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) October 16, 2024

Jakub Lauko, who scored the game-winning short-handed goal in the second period for his first goal with the Wild, wanted to join the pile from the bench. There were only nine seconds left in the game, but he figured it was against the rules and decided to stay put.

Luckily for him, Gustavsson skated to the bench and did a fist-bump flyby with his blocker. The first person he greeted was a smiling, proud Fleury.

“Props to him,” Lauko said. “It’s pretty impressive, and he deserves it. It would have been nicer at home, with a full barn, but you know it’s an incredible moment. I’m just happy for him.”

Gustavsson’s goal was the Wild’s fourth power-play goal of the season. He joked that he wanted to help push the power play over 20 percent, but he actually pushed it to 30.8 percent.

“Should probably be in the power play meetings now,” Gustavsson said.

Wild coach John Hynes has seen a goalie goal before. While coaching Nashville, Pekka Rinne scored one in Chicago.

“It was one of my first couple games in Nashville,” he recalled. “But it was almost very similar to Gus’s. It was kind of a six-on-five situation and kind of dumped in on the goalie and he had time to be able to do it and you could tell both guys … were going for it. Great to see.”

With the Wild playing seven defensemen and not playing again until in Columbus on Saturday, Kirill Kaprizov logged 27:59 of ice time — the second-most in his NHL career. According to ESPN, it was the sixth-most by a forward who had no shots in a game since 2000-01.

But Kaprizov was terrific, having two beautiful assists on goals by Ryan Hartman and Marco Rossi. He leads 2-0-2 Minnesota, which hasn’t trailed in any game, with six points.

Kaprizov has one goal, however, and volunteered that he’s tied in goals with the Wild’s No. 1 goalie: “Same (number of) goals like a lot of guys.”

“It’s probably not gonna be for long,” Gustavsson said.

The irony about Tuesday is before the season, it’s believed the Wild had the Blues game slated for Wallstedt’s season debut. But the Wild are inundated with injuries to Joel Eriksson Ek, Jared Spurgeon and Marcus Johansson, so Wallstedt had to be sent to Iowa to make room for callup Daemon Hunt. Plus, Gustavsson is playing so well, they need Wallstedt to get some practices and game action somewhere and right now it can’t be Minnesota.

The Wild want to get Wallstedt more games in the NHL this season than the three he got last year, but the name of the game is winning and if Gustavsson keeps racking up victories, he should get the bulk of the playing time.

If the Wild want to get back into the playoffs this season, they need the “Gus Bus” to look and play like the goalie of two years ago who finished with the second-best save percentage and goals-against average in the NHL and not the one that floundered last season to a sub-.900 save percentage.

So far in three starts, he’s 2-0-1 with a 1.66 goals-against average and .948 save percentage. He worked hard this offseason, came back to Minnesota in tip-top shape and has improved upon his practice habits.

“I don’t think I do anything special out there,” he said. “(I’m not) flashy. Obviously, I make some bigger saves, but that’s usually when you’re out of position. I just try to be in the right position most of the time and make boring saves. And I think that’s been working very good so far.”

Good, like in the second period after Lauko’s short-handed goal where he preserved a 2-0 lead by sprawling across his crease to rob Jordan Kyrou.

“Obviously we all know at the end of last year (Gustavsson) wasn’t happy and no one was happy with what had gone on,” Hynes said. “He put some hard work in this summer and he’s come back in I think the right mindset and learned his lessons from last year and now he’s come in and he’s playing real solid and you need that.

“Early in the year sometimes it’s tough to win if you don’t get strong goaltending because the games are a little bit scattered as everyone’s trying to get used to the NHL pace, there’s sometimes breakdowns, systems aren’t totally dialed in where they need to be so when you can get really quality goaltending early, it gives you the best chance to win.”

Goalie goals help, too.

Gus making Wild history 👏 pic.twitter.com/lnjSeLQikN
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) October 16, 2024

(Photo: Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Images)

Related Topics:Featured minnesota wild NHL St. Louis Blues

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Sports

Deion Sanders mourns loss of Colorado quarterback Dominiq Ponder: ‘One of my favorites’

Published

4 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Deion Sanders mourns loss of Colorado quarterback Dominiq Ponder: ‘One of my favorites’

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Colorado Buffaloes quarterback Dominiq Ponder died this weekend, the team’s head coach Deion Sanders confirmed on Sunday with a social media post.

“God please comfort the Ponder family, friends and loved ones,” Sanders wrote on social media. “Dom was one of my favorites! He was Loved, Respected & a Born Leader. Let’s pray for all that knew him & had the opportunity to be in his presence. Lord you’re receiving a good 1. Comfort us Lord Comfort us.”

Ponder was 23 years old.

Details of Ponder’s death are not yet known.

Colorado head coach Deion Sanders watches his team warm up before an NCAA college football game against TCU Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025, in Fort Worth, Texas. (Tony Gutierrez/AP Photo)

Ponder, a 6-foot-5, 200-pound signal caller, joined the Buffaloes and “Coach Prime’s” program in 2024 after spending time at Bethune-Cookman before making his way to Boulder.

Last season, Ponder played just two games for the Buffaloes while serving in his backup role. He recorded two rush attempts and one pass attempt.

The Opa Locka, Fla., native also received tribute from a fellow quarterback with the Buffaloes, Colton Allen.

Bethune-Cookman QB Dominiq Ponder takes a snap during the Wildcats’ spring game Saturday, April 22, 2023, at Daytona Stadium. (IMAGN)

“Dom, you were a blessing to so many people,” Allen wrote on Instagram. “You had a presence about you that just made everything better. You brought so much joy to me and everyone around you. I’m grateful for every lift, every practice, every rep, every conversation we got to share. I’ll carry those with me for the rest of my life.”

Ponder was going to be a part of Colorado’s spring practices, which are set to begin on Monday. It’s unknown if Sanders will postpone the start due to Ponder’s passing.

Ponder also received a tribute from the University of Central Florida.

Colorado head coach Deion Sanders watches his players warm up before an NCAA college football game against Utah, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025, in Salt Lake City. (Tyler Tate/AP Photo)

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“Our prayers are with Dominiq and the Ponder family along with all in the Colorado football program,” the university’s football account on X wrote.

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Scott Thompson is a sports writer for Fox News Digital.

Sports

No. 2 UCLA women dominate rival USC to finish Big Ten play undefeated

Published

5 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

No. 2 UCLA women dominate rival USC to finish Big Ten play undefeated

Sunday was “Senior Night” for the USC women’s basketball team at Galen Center, but it was the other team’s seniors who stole the show.

Gabriela Jaquez scored 14 points, Kiki Rice had 11 points and four assists and Lauren Betts had 15 rebounds and five assists as UCLA wrapped up the regular season with a 73-50 victory over its rival and finished undefeated in conference play for the first time since going 18-0 in the Pac-10 in 1998-99 under Kathy Olivier.

Having already clinched the regular-season title, UCLA became the first team to navigate the Big Ten schedule without a loss since Maryland in 2014-15.

“These are two elite programs, we knew it would be different tonight, we knew they’d come with fire,” said UCLA coach Cori Close, who improved to 9-4 against the Trojans since counterpart Lindsay Gottlieb started at USC in 2021. “We knew we’d have to do it with our defense, our rebounding and by taking care of the ball.”

It was the Bruins’ 22nd consecutive win, one shy of the record they set last season. Since their lone loss to then-No. 4 Texas on Nov. 26 in Las Vegas, they have won by 20 or more points 17 times.

Ranked second in the nation in both the Associated Press and coaches’ polls behind defending national champion Connecticut (30-0), the Bruins earned the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament in Indianapolis and got a bye into Friday’s quarterfinals.

Charlisse Leger-Walker, nicknamed “X-ray vision” by teammates, equaled her season high with 20 points for the Bruins (28-1, 18-0) while Gianna Kneepkens added 14 points and five assists.

“Anytime we play together we know we can win,” Leger-Walker said. “We did a good job looking into the scout. Every game we just think about going 1-0. People scouting us know that all five players on the court can score the ball.”

UCLA center Lauren Betts, left, controls the ball in front of USC forward Vivian Iwuchukwu during the first half Sunday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

UCLA held USC to 27% shooting in the teams’ first meeting — a 34-point Bruins victory at Pauley Pavilion on Jan. 3 behind Betts’ 18 points. It was USC’s most lopsided loss under coach Lindsay Gottlieb. On Sunday, USC shot 39% and was only three for 19 from three-point range.

“Going undefeated [in conference] is a great step in the right direction towards what we want to accomplish,” said Jaquez, who appreciated the flowers she received before the game from USC. “I love this rivalry. It’s super fun to play against them and it was nice that they honored us too.”

UCLA jumped out to a 14-4 lead in the first five minutes and carried a 19-11 advantage into the second quarter. The Bruins widened the gap to 18 points by halftime, holding the Trojans scoreless for the last 3:08.

USC (17-12, 9-9) opened the second half on an 11-2 run but gave up 14 second-chance points and allowed 22 offensive rebounds.

UCLA guard Kiki Rice, front, and forward Angela Dugalic celebrate as USC guard Kennedy Smith walks away.

“If we get more possessions than our opponent we’re most likely going to win,” Close said. “We didn’t allow one basket on an out-of-bounds play and they lead the conference in that.”

Freshman guard Jazzy Davidson, USC’s leading scorer, got into early foul trouble but still finished with 12 points. She was held to 10 points on four-for-15 shooting in the first meeting.

“It was a great crowd, we were in the fight but we didn’t rebound or shoot well enough,” Gottlieb said. “We wanted to keep them out of our paint. We swarmed Betts, double-teamed her and got it out of her hands but other people scored.”

Londynn Jones, who spent three seasons in Westwood (playing in 108 straight games) before transferring to USC for her senior year, was held to six points in the team’s first meeting and nine points (on four-of-10 shooting) in the rematch. The Trojans’ other senior, Kara Dunn, was held scoreless in the first half and finished with eight points.

“I love Londynn,” Close said. “We think she looks better in blue, but we love her and I told her that. I appreciate all she gave to our programs.”

Asked if this is the best team she has ever coached, Close had a one-word answer.

“Yes.”

Sports

Israeli national gymnastics team suspends all activities after Iranian counter-attack

Published

16 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Israeli national gymnastics team suspends all activities after Iranian counter-attack

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Israel’s national gymnastics team has suspended all training and team activities amid the recent Iranian counter-attack on the country following the U.S.-assisted strikes on Iran.

The Israel Gymnastics Federation (IGF) provided a statement to Fox News Digital announcing the violence has caused “unavoidable disruptions.”

“The current security situation in our region has resulted in unavoidable disruptions to our regular training schedule and has created significant uncertainty regarding the national teams’ professional plans, particularly as we are at the outset of the international season,” the statement read.

“At this time, all training activities have been temporarily suspended, pending approval from the relevant authorities to safely resume operations. Naturally, the suspension of training and the closure of airspace are causing considerable stress and concern. However, the safety and well-being of our gymnasts and professional staff remain our highest priority. We sincerely hope for safer and calmer days ahead, when we can focus solely on sport.”

A source within the team told Fox News Digital on Saturday that the gymnasts have been moving between bomb shelters since Iran’s counterstrikes began.

Israel’s gymnastics team is considered one of nation’s strongest Olympic programs alongside its Judo and sailing teams. The team is only a week removed from a successful trip at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Germany, where the country’s star Artem Dolgopyat won the gold medal in floor gymnastics.

Now, the team will have to seek safety until the attacks are over.

The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem has directed all U.S. government employees and their family members to continue to shelter in place either in or near their residences as Iran continues to fire missiles at Israel.

Additionally, the embassy announced that due to the security situation, it would be closed on March 2, and did not give an estimate on when it would be reopening. The closure includes consular sections in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

The embassy also said it is “not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist Americans in departing Israel.” It noted that Ben Gurion Airport remains closed and there there are neither commercial nor charter flights operating from the airport.

On Friday, ahead of the launch of Operation Epic Fury, the embassy gave all non-essential workers permission to leave Israel, with reports that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee urged those looking to leave to do so as soon as possible.

Iranian airstrikes killed at least eight Israelis on Sunday as Tehran’s latest missile barrage landed just miles from Jerusalem.

The strikes landed in the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh. Initial reports said four people were killed when missiles landed in a residential area on Sunday, but that death toll rose to eight, according to Israel’s national emergency service.

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Iran’s military has carried out counterattacks against Israel and U.S. bases in the Middle East after a joint U.S.-Israeli strike killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday.

The strikes also killed several other top Iranian leaders, including the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Jackson Thompson is a sports reporter for Fox News Digital covering critical political and cultural issues in sports, with an investigative lens. Jackson’s reporting has been cited in federal government actions related to the enforcement of Title IX, and in legacy media outlets including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Associated Press and ESPN.com.