This Day in Hockey History – January 2, 1999 and 2001 – Scoring Shutouts

Jan 2, 2019

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At the turn of the twenty-first century, two goalies each scored a goal before earning a shutout. On January 2, 1999, Damian Rhodes became the first NHL goalie to have both a goal and a shutout in the same game. Exactly two years later, in 2001, Jose Theodore matched him. The two goals were very different. Rhodes was credited as the last member of his team to touch the puck on a goal in the first period while Theodore himself sent the puck down to score an empty-netter as the game ended. They made 30 and 32 saves, respectively, to keep their opponents scoreless.

Damian Rhodes

In 1999, Damian Rhodes played for the Ottawa Senators, who, on January 2, hosted the New Jersey Devils at the Corel Centre for a crowd of 18,037. The Senators were already up by one in the first period when, as described by Allen Panzeri for the Ottawa Citizen, “with a hooking penalty about to be called on Senators defenceman Jason York and the Devils goalie Martin Brodeur on the bench in favour of an extra skater, Rhodes deflected the puck into the corner.” Devils defenseman Lyle Odelein “tried to send it to the point” but “the puck slid past” everyone else “before ending its long journey in the empty New Jersey net.” Ottawa coach Jacques Martin said, “It’s one of the few flukes you get. You don’t see too many of them, but we’ll take it. We’ve had our share of misfortune.”

Rhodes commented, “I probably couldn’t even shoot the puck all the way down the ice. It’s probably the only way I’m going to get a goal.” In almost identical circumstances, he had been credited with a goal ten years beforehand, on January 21, 1989, while playing for Michigan Tech. With this goal for Ottawa, Rhodes became only the third goalie credited with a goal during the 1990s (following Chris Osgood in 1996 and Martin Brodeur in 1997). Rhodes kept the puck as a souvenir. He was more excited about having earned his first shutout of the season and the ninth of his career. “As far as it goes, I’m paid to keep the puck out, not to score,” Rhodes reminded the press. “We’ve been really working for our chances. We not only got our chances, we got some bounces.”

Jose Theodore

The Senators scored two goals in each period to win 6-0. It was their third straight win though their record (18-13-4) was slightly worse than the Devils’ (21-10-4). The teams would have to face each other three more times in the same month.

In 2001, Jose Theodore was made the No. 1 goalie for the Montreal Canadiens when fellow goalie Jeff Hackett had a broken hand. On January 2, the Canadiens played the New York Islanders as Nassau Coliseum before a reported attendance of 7,916. During the first period, the Islanders outshot the Canadiens 13-9, but Montreal reversed that in the second by outshooting 16-5. Montreal scored one goal in the second period and another in the third when (with nine seconds remaining) Theodore became the first Canadiens goalie to score after the Islanders pulled their goalie, John Vanbiesbrouck.

Theodore described the play for the press. “It’s the first time I’ve ever scored a goal. I’m not the kind of guy you expect to score because I’m not known for using my stick. But when I go to my backhand, I can get some strength behind it. I was just trying to flip it out of our zone, but it was right down the middle. I thought one of the defencemen would catch up to it, but they didn’t.” His was the sixth goal scored by an NHL goaltender. The 3-0 win “snapped a four-game losing streak” for the Canadiens.