11 years ago today, Marek Malik scored one of the best shootout goals ever
I think you could make a case for it being THE best.
On this day, 11 years ago, Jason Ward scored shorthanded in the first period to put the New York Rangers up by one over the Washington Capitals. Fourteen seconds into the second period, Dominic Moore assisted on a Jed Ortmeyer goal, and the Rangers had a quick 2-0 lead.
Except Chris Clark - assisted by Jamie Heward and Alex Ovechkin - scored just minutes later to make it a 2-1 game, and just over halfway through the period, Brian Willsie, via Matt Pettinger and Jeff Halpern, tied it up at two.
And nobody else scored.
Regulation ended tied 2-2, and overtime didn’t help either team. It was off to a shootout.
Fifteen rounds of shootout, to be precise, with neither team able to best the other each step of the way. Henrik Lundqvist stopped the Caps’ shooter, though, and 15 rounds deep, Marek Malik was up.
Malik, who had five assists already in the season, but no goals. Malik, who had scored a career 27 goals in the NHL at the time - over 488 games.
Malik, who went on to score arguably the greatest shootout goal ever.
Malik revisited his shootout goal earlier in the summer, citing the thing that he loves the best about it is that it made - and still makes - people happy.
That’s as good a legacy as anyone can hope for. Eleven years ago today, he made it happen.