With his team leading by a goal late in the third period of Friday’s game, Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Jonathan Bernier had, well, let’s say a lapse in concentration at perhaps the worst possible time.
New Jersey Devils forward Michael Ryder harmlessly threw a puck from the side boards on the Toronto net. The puck somehow found its way through some bodies passing by in front, then deflected off of Bernier’s stick into the net, as the goalie was going into the butterfly.
That was actually the first time in a combined 170 minutes and 34 seconds the Devils had scored with Cory Schneider in their own goal.
Bernier’s gaffe helped the Devils force overtime, however the Leafs prevailed by a final score of 2-1 with the shootout win. Bernier made two saves in the skills competition, and got the help of the goal post on another New Jersey attempt.
While that may have been an ugly one, Leafs’ forward Phil Kessel scored an absolute beauty of the coast-to-coast, end-to-end variety earlier in the third period.