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 each encounter there is an ' emergency goalkeeper ' who can play for any of the two teams that play the game. A circumstance rarely seen and not given much importance. That is why it is an amateur goalkeeper who is not part of the discipline of either rival. But sometimes, only sometimes, the sport gives absolutely surreal moments.

This last night, in the duel between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Carolina Hurricanes , that surrealist moment was lived by Dave Ayres , 42 , driver of the pavilion's ice polisher , worker in the maintenance department and goalkeeper of the Canadian team only during workouts 15 years ago he had to go through the operating room to have a kidney transplant , and now he is the most famous man in the NHL .

Ayres debuted yesterday as a goalkeeper, although not from 'his' Maple Leafs, but from the Hurricanes, the rival team. The Carolina 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, who 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 evidently became the oldest player to get his first victory in his debut. A 3-6 of which was the absolute star to stop eight of the ten shots made by rivals. I was used to stop throwing professional players in training, but doing it in 'real life' is something very different.

"It was amazing. The best moment of my life," Ayres explained to television after the game.

The man, who will charge $ 500 for the game , hit the track with 1-3 in favor of the Hurricanes, a team whose goal he had to defend. He was wearing his shirt, but his helmet was from the Marlies , the subsidiary of the Maple Leafs. The only helmet I had. As soon as he left, Carolina extended the rent to 1-4, but Toronto's first two pitches on Ayres were goal: 3-4. "They told me to enjoy, that it didn't matter if they scored ten goals . It was fantastic." From there, 'your' night. He began to stop shooting and did not fit even one more for the final victory of his team: 3-6.

" It's something I will never forget, " he acknowledged, while 'his' hobby, which he had annoyed that night stopping so many pitches, he applauded him. "The fans have been amazing, even though I was defending the visiting team. Every time I made a stop I heard them scream. Amazing."

The shirt of the ' legend' Ayres with the number 90 sure is one of the best sellers of the week in Carolina.

In the locker room , among superstars, the hero was the type of 42 years.

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