Reaction to Antoine Roussel’s bizarre behind-the-net goal off his skate

The beautiful thing about sports is you never know what you’re going to see on a given night. Saturday at the American Airlines Center provided one of those moments.

Stars forward Antoine Roussel scored a goal early in the second period in the most bizarre way possible. The puck didn’t touch a Dallas players’ stick, only skates.

Here’s a breakdown: The Wild were trying to clear it out from behind their own net. The puck hit off Stars forward Ales Hemsky’s skate and headed back behind the net. The wobbly puck then bounced off Roussel’s skate and took an upward path towards the goal.

Somehow, it cleared the crossbar and hit the back of Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk’s helmet. Dubnyk skated backwards into the goal and lifted it off its moorings. Simultaneously, the puck had slid down his back and crossed the goal-line.

Upon a lengthy review, the officials determined the puck had cleared the goal-line before the actual goal had moved, which gave the Stars the goal and lead. Dallas went on to win the game 2-1 and have a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Reaction on the crazy and controversial goal:

Roussel: “Felt I got lucky on that one. I was trying to kick it back on my stick and ... just perfect. Looked like a [Sidney] Crosby goal or something.”

Dubnyk: “The puck is kicked and somehow they have enough to overturn the ref’s call. It’s mind-blowing that that’s the outcome of that play.”

Stars captain Jamie Benn: “It was tough to see it. I think we all saw it best on the replay. I think the puck was in. It’s not our call. It’s the ref’s call and we got a break tonight I guess.”

Wild defenseman Matt Dumba: “I don’t know if anyone can really riddle me how that’s a goal in the National Hockey League, but it was.”

Stars coach Lindy Ruff: “I’ve seen some crazy ones. I’ve seen some that are similar. But I don’t think I’ve seen one that’s gone to review where you don’t know whether it went in, where you don’t know if the net’s off, don’t know if it was high stick, you don’t know whehter it was kicked, so there were a lot of options there to go over.”

Wild coach John Torchetti: “I couldn’t review any of it because they went over the kick, the high stick, the whistle. It’s what they called back in Toronto, so it’s a goal, it’s a goal. You got to move on, can’t worry about it.”

This story was originally published April 16, 2016 at 11:10 PM with the headline "Reaction to Antoine Roussel’s bizarre behind-the-net goal off his skate."