Leading 2-1 and with 10 minutes left in the 1st period, Joël Bouchard pulled his goalie

The Utica Comets faced the Syracuse Crunch today in an afternoon game.

In the first period, with his club leading 2-1 and down to 5-on-3 for a minute and a half, Joël Bouchard had the nerve to pull his goalie and try to take advantage at 6-on-3…

You saw it coming. The strategy backfired, and the Comets scored a goal in an empty net to tie the score (2-2).

Not a sequence you see every day…

And it’s not a sequence that will go down in history for the Crunch, who looked a little crazy:

I imagine the idea had already been discussed en masse at the Crunch before implementing the strategy because it’s not something a coach does regularly.

It’s creative, and it certainly could have worked… But if the players weren’t aware of it and got a goal because of a goofy decision by the coach, that’s another story.

The score was only 2-1, after all. It’s not as if the Crunch had the biggest lead in the world…

The important thing is that the Crunch were able to run away with the win.

Bouchard’s men won 5-4 on an overtime goal by Joe Carroll, and everyone can go home happy.

Imagine if the Quebec coach’s blunder had cost the Crunch the game…. I have a feeling Joël Bouchard would have had a bad night. Especially since we know how passionate he is and how much he loves the game.

In fact, the Utica organization joined in the celebration after the goal was scored, tweeting that “this is the stupidest thing the Comets have seen”.

Fair enough:

LOLLLLLLLLLLL THAT WAS THE DUMBEST THING WE’VE EVER SEEN

Schmelzer

2-2 | 9 minutes in the first pic.twitter.com/IWrt2mNZlX

– Utica Comets (@UticaComets) January 15, 2024

In bursts

– He’s not human.

– Makes sense.

– Wow!

– Good one.