Exposed: Wild’s Gustavsson joins goalkeeper goals trend

Ullmark, Jarry and Gustavsson were each allowed to shoot from above the goal line.

“For the last three years it’s always been from in front of the goal line,” said Nedeljkovic, who watched Jarry’s goal from the Penguins’ bench. “It makes life a lot easier when you can get the puck in front of the goal line instead of going back and pulling a dump-in off the wall and turning your whole body back onto the ice. Even the three of them.” [goals] I scored, they were all from the front of the net, so that makes it a lot easier.”

Ullmark parried a deflected dump-in at the bottom of the right faceoff circle, quickly pivoting to his forehand before firing a high shot that landed at the top of the circle at the other end. Jarry arrived after a pass on his forehand was directed just outside the left goal area into the zone directly in front of him and his shot landed near the distant markers, reaching a top speed of 55.76 miles per hour while in the Air and at maximum power traveled 148.7 feet at a height of 16.4 feet above the ice, according to NHL EDGE statistics. Gustavsson knocked down a shot from the neutral zone after a faceoff, dropped the puck and a knee to the ice and fired a shot that landed at the top of the crease at the other end before bouncing in.

“It was a dream situation,” New Jersey Devils goalie Jake Allen said. “Whenever a goalkeeper can do that, you have to do your best. But this was a perfect situation for Gustavsson. A slap shot from the middle of the ice with 15 seconds left, two seconds left. If you don’t shoot the puck.” Oh man, that’s a tough question, but good for him.

Allen shares Nedeljkovic’s belief that improved puck-handling and shooting skills have played a role in the recent surge in goaltending ratings, comparing the ability to quickly lift a puck over the forechecker on a shot into an empty net to the need to pass a puck get high over the glass behind the net to get a hard edge. As someone who still used a wooden stick in 2018, he also points to the improved stick technology since goalies switched to composite sticks.

“If you have time to bend over, get on one knee and get under it, you’ll get some height,” Allen said. “Fifteen years ago it was difficult to achieve this. The curves aren’t the same anymore, it doesn’t have the same pop. But now goalkeeper sticks have their own individual flex and everyone can fire it. … I think everyone has the ability.” To make it these days with technology, it just depends on the situation. The game moves so quickly that you really need the puck over the goal line.

So will we continue to see more goalkeeper goals? The answer may not lie in whether goaltenders are capable, but rather in whether opponents give them enough chances to shoot pucks from above the goal line into empty nets.

“I don’t know if we’ll necessarily see it more often,” Nedeljkovic said. “But I won’t be surprised if it happens again.”