I just came across this quote about the San Jose Sharks goaltender Yevgeni Nabokov:
"Note that Nabokov does have a power play goal to his credit. Back in
the 2001-02 season, he became the first goaltender to score on the
power play and the first European-born netminder to put the puck in
the opponent's net. Not to mention the first Sharks goaltender to
score a goal in a regular season game."

I'd like to hear an account of how this goal occurred.

Hello lostandfound,

Here is a good description of Evgeni Nabokov's goal:

"On March 10, 2002, Evgeni became the first European goaltender (and
seventh overall) to score a National Hockey League goal, when - from
the top of his own crease - he hit an empty Vancouver net with 47.2
seconds remaining in the Sharks' 7-4 win.  On the power play, Nabokov
initially looked to sweep the puck to defenseman Brad Stuart.  'I
(saw) him coming,' ... 'I was going to give it to him, but after that
I see the defensemen split so I was just like, "I'm going to go for
it," and it went in ...'".

"Evgeni Nabokov" (last updated 09-May-04) [scroll about 1/3 down the
page to "Did You Know?"]
The Goaltender Home Page
http://www.hockeygoalies.org/bio/nabokov.html

Incidentally, here is ESPN's boxscore of the game:

"BOX SCORE: GM Place Sun., March 10 - San Jose 7, Vancouver 4"
ESPN.com
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/boxscore?gameId=220310022

- justaskscott


Search terms used on Google:

yevgeni nabokov goal
evgeni nabokov goal "march 10" 2002

That was just what I was looking for.  Thanks!!

lostandfound --

I haven't found a detailed account of how the play developed, but that
may be because it was an anticlimactic empty-net goal in a three-goal
San Jose victory.  From contemporaneous press reports of the game, I
can give you the date and the opponent and the added fact of how many
NHL goaltenders had scored before Nabokov scored his, but that's about
it.  You may want to wait to see if another researcher can come up
with some more detail.

markj-ga