NHL: A surreal night in the NHL: the driver of the flag polisher becomes a goalkeeper, and hero, of the visiting team

Dave Ayres, 42, was the 'emergency goalkeeper' for the meeting between Toronto and Carolina. Two goalkeepers were injured … And he had to jump to the track.

In the NHL, the national hockey league of North America, each team has a substitute goalkeeper to replace the holder in case of injury. But what happens if both are injured? In every encounter there is a 'emergency doorman'who can get to play for either team Let them play the game. A circumstance rarely seen and not given much importance. That's why it is a amateur janitor which is not part of the discipline of either rival. But sometimes, only sometimes, the sport gives absolutely surreal moments.

Tonight, in the duel between Toronto Maple Leafs and the Carolina HurricanesI lived that surreal moment Dave Ayres, from 42 years, pavilion ice polisher driver, worker in the maintenance department and goalkeeper of the Canadian team only during training. 15 years ago he had to go through the operating room to have a kidney transplant, and now is the most famous man in the NHL.

Ayres debut yesterday as a goalkeeper, although not from 'his' Maple Leafs, but from the Hurricanes, the rival team. Carolina's team saw how the two goalkeepers, James Reimer and Petr Mrazek, were injured during the match, so they had to appeal to the figure of the 'emergency goalkeeper'. Ayres, what I was watching the meeting in the stands with his wife, began receiving calls and text messages. He had to go down to the locker room, put on the Hurricanes shirt and jump onto the track to defend the result.

And he was the hero.

He obviously became the oldest player to get his first victory in his debut. A 3-6 of which was the absolute star at stop eight of ten shots What rivals did. I was used to stop throwing professional players in training, but doing it in 'real life' is something very different.

“It was incredible. The best moment of my life”, Ayres explained to the television after the game.

The man, who charge 500 dollars for the match, I went to the track with 1-3 in favor of the Hurricanes, team whose goalkeeper had to defend. He was wearing his shirt, but his helmet was one of the Marlies, the subsidiary of the Maple Leafs. The only helmet I had. Upon leaving, Carolina extended the rent to 1-4, but Toronto's first two pitches over Ayres were goal: 3-4. “They tell me to enjoy, that I didn't care if I got ten goals. It was fantastic. “From there, 'his' night. He began to stop shooting and did not fit one more for the final victory of his team: 3-6.

“It is something you never forget“, he acknowledged, while 'his' hobby, to which he had annoyed that night stopping so many pitches, he applauds him.” The fans have been incredible, even though I was defending the visiting team. Every time you make a stop or shout them. Incredible. “