The Carolina Hurricanes’ Organizational Goaltending Carousel

Within the past two weeks the Carolina Hurricanes’ organization has burned through nine different goaltenders. Let us take a quick look at each goalie part of the recent carousel.

Just two weeks ago the Carolina Hurricanes were preparing to face off against the Maple Leafs in Toronto with a goaltending tandem of Petr Mrazek and James Reimer. But, when the final horn sounded, neither Petr or James would be the goalie of record for the Canes.

Entering the night, the Hurricanes were coming off a 5-2 home loss at the hands of the Rangers and were looking to get back on track on the second half of a back to back. With Petr playing the night before, Reimer was set to make his 25th appearance of the season in net. But, unfortunately for James, his night would be cut short.

Not even four minutes into the contest, Maple Leaf’s forward Zach Hyman shoved Jaccob Slavin into his own goaltender, earning an interference penalty in the process. After the collision Reimer was a little slow to get up. Looked at briefly by the Hurricanes’ medical staff, he opted to stay into the game.

After another uneventful Canes power play, it was time for a tv time out. When the broadcast resumed Petr Mrazek was in net. Evidently Reimer had decided he wasn’t at 100% and removed himself from the game having only played a little over six minutes.

The unthinkable happened midway through the second period when Kyle Clifford laid out Mrazek, who left his crease to play a loose puck. Initially given a 10 minute misconduct penalty, Clifford would end up only receiving a two minute charging minor.

With both Mrazek and Reimer out, the Carolina Hurricanes had to resort to the arena’s emergency back up goaltender, a 42 year old zamboni driver who practices with Toronto on occasion.

Not even in full equipment yet, David Ayres was forced to enter a massive game for Carolina given their position in the standings. Although the Canes had a 4-1 lead, it was an uneasy time for fans. Quickly letting in two goals on the first two shots he faced, Carolina was franticly looking into their options should Ayres be unable to hold down the fort, a one legged Reimer return or the possiblity of Hurricanes’ forward Ryan Dzingel lacing up the pads among them.

Going into the second intermission up 4-3, the players in the room were doing everything they could to settle Ayres in and help him seize the moment. Warren Foegele would find the back of the net 53 seconds into the third in what was quite possibly the best period of hockey Carolina has played all year.

Without Brett Pesce and both goaltenders, every single player on the Hurricanes roster was blocking shots and getting into passing lanes in route to a massive 6-3 road win. After a shaky start, Ayres would go on to stop the final eight shots he faced in his storybook NHL debut, marking the first time an EBUG would be the winning goalie of record.

After the game it was announced the both Petr and James would be out for a while. In a corresponding announcement the next afternoon, both Alex Nedeljkovic and Anton Forsberg got called up from the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers on emergency basis.