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The Senators ended up shorthanded on the goaltender front when Anton Forsberg was injured while warming up on Saturday night and tapped a student at the University of Ottawa to give them some insurance. He was able to make it to the game, but only after sprinting to the arena after getting caught up in gameday traffic.
Every single NHL team is required to have two goaltenders on their 23-man roster at all times, which is usually more than sufficient when you consider only one of them will be tasked with patrolling the net in the vast majority of games that are played.
The most common exception to that general rule is situations where a backup replaces a guy who got absolutely shelled, and there are also some occasions where teams are forced to make a swap after the starter goes down with an injury.
That last development has the potential to spawn some chaos thanks to a rule the NHL instituted ahead of the 2016-17 season that dictates every franchise needs to have an emergency backup goaltender (EBUG) on call as a contingency plan for the fairly rare scenarios where a team loses both of the goalies on the roster to an injury in the same contest (the player in waiting is eligible to suit up for either team).
As things currently stand, there have only been six games where an EBUG has seen any action, although there are two instances that really stand out.
In 2018, an accountant named Scott Foster stopped all seven shots he faced during the 14 minutes he played while the Blackhawks earned a win. Two years later, David Ayres, a 42-year-old Zamboni driver for Toronto’s AHL affiliate, helped the Hurricanes beat the Maple Leafs by recording eight consecutive saves after giving up goals on the first two shots he faced after getting thrown into the fire during the second period.
That brings us to what unfolded when the Ottawa Senators hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins at Canadian Tire Centre for a showdown on Saturday night. Anton Forsberg was supposed to get the star in goal for the home team, but Linus Ullmark ultimately got the nod after the former injured himself in the gym while warming up for the contest.
According to the Ottawa Citizen, Zach Dietz, a 22-year-old who plays goalie for the University of Ottawa, learned about that development around an hour before the puck was scheduled to drop when he was informed the Senators needed someone to serve as the EBUG.
He headed to the arena with his girlfriend before getting stuck in traffic on the road leading to the barn, and he realized his best bet was to grab his equipment and undergo the rest of the journey by foot prior to making the mad dash that was captured by someone else who was driving to the game.
@SunGarrioch – he deserves a few minutes of play for running to the rink with his gear! pic.twitter.com/yqVsnWQhFK
— Ryan (@muggers_hockey) December 15, 2024
Dietz didn’t end up playing in a game where the Senators got the 3-2 victory in overtime, but that’s definitely the kind of EBUG you want on your team.