“Experience of a lifetime” – Ducks use emergency goalie Thomas Hodges in loss to Dallas Stars
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Thomas Hodges
The Dallas Stars beat the Anaheim Ducks 4-2 on Friday night in a regular-season finale, where Robertson scored a power-play against an emergency replacement goalie midway through the third period. The game took place on Friday night at American Airlines Center in Dallas.
Thomas Hodges started the 2nd period after John Gibbson suffered from an upper-body injury and Anthony Stolarz with a lower-body injury, granting 1 goal in 3 shots. Hodges stepped on the ice when the game was tied to 2-2. Jason Robertson gave Dallas a 3-2 lead with his 41st goal of the season.
“I am going to remember for the rest of my life” – Thomas Hodges
With a minute left Vladislav Namestikov scored into an empty net, while defenceman Thomas Harley and Joel Hanley scored the 2nd-period goals for Dallas. Troy Terry tied the game during the second period, whereas Max Comtois scored for Anaheim 7:33 into the game.
Thomas Hodges has been acting as the emergency goalie in Dallas Star since 2019,
“When I got the call, that ‘Hey, you’re actually going to have to go out’ — because it was 50-50 there for a little bit — I was probably about as nervous as I’ve ever been,” the 28-year-old said. “I’ve never played in front of so many people. Experience of a lifetime, and something I’m going to remember for the rest of my life for sure.
“I go from being in the stands watching a hockey game to having to play the third period in the course of 30 minutes. Unreal. I’m so thankful for the opportunity.”
As Tory Terry felt the nerves of Thomas Hodges he tried his best to calm him down as he entered the ring. Terry noted,
“Once he comes in there, our attitude shifted to playing for him, and we told him that”. “Obviously, you could tell he was nervous, so just trying to calm him down. When we went out there, we had a power play to start, and I think he asked me what the score was like 10 seconds before puck drop. I was like ‘2-2, but don’t think about it.’ We just told him to have fun. We were going to be happy no matter what happened, so we were happy for him.”
The Ducks showered Thomas Hodges with water as soon as he entered the locker room after the game and offered him the game puck. As mentioned in nhl.com, Hodges said that,
“I’ve got a lot of wet gear from all the water they threw on me in the locker room,” he said. “But also I got one of the game pucks from tonight, so I’ll cherish that. Oh, and the jersey.”
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Kaushani Chatterjee
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