Brodeur's Three Career Goals and How they Stack Up Against Other Goalie Goals

Martin Brodeur was credited with his third career goal in last night's win against Carolina. Brodeur has scored two other times in his career and now is the only goaltender to have been credited with three goals in his career. So let's take a look at how Brodeur has "scored" each of these goals and how he compares to other goaltenders that have scored during their NHL career.

So, let's start with the videos of Brodeur scoring. Brodeur's first and most impressive goal comes from a regular season game against the Montreal Canadiens on April 17^th, 1997. The play starts off with the Canadiens dumping the puck into the Devils zone as they pull their goalie for an extra skater. Brodeur gets the puck behind the net, realizes he has plenty of time to clear the puck, and rifles a shot from one knee that arcs all the way to center ice and then slides down the length of the ice into the net. Check out the video of Brodeur full ice shot below.

The second goal is the weirdest "goal" and is only given to Brodeur due to the technicality that he touched it last. The Philadelphia Flyers chip a shot on net and Brodeur paddles the puck away. After that the puck gets knocked out of the zone and down the length of the ice. A Flyer manages to get the puck inside their blue line and attempts to pass it only to have it deflect off their own player and into their own net. Below is a really grainy video of the goal, sorry about the poor quality, but it seems that it's hard to find a good video of this goal.

Then there was last night's goal where Patrick Dwyer of the Carolina Hurricanes draws a penalty from Marek Zidlicky as he splits the defense and gets a shot on net. The puck deflects into the back corner off of Brodeur and Eric Staal attempts to pass the puck to the point, except the puck doesn't get to Tim Gleason and deflects of the boards and down the ice into the Carolina empty net. Again, Brodeur is credited since he was the last man to touch the puck. Video of the goal below.

Perhaps the Hockey Gods were working their magic after Cam Ward was credited with a goal after that disaster of a pass by Ilya Kovalchuk last season.

Anyways, have other goalies scored like Marty did in '97 by shooting the puck the length of the ice? Below is a table from Wikipedia showing the goalies who have scored during their NHL tenure.

As you can see, Martin Brodeur has passed Ron Hextall for most goals by a goalie and is now in sole possession of that record. While 10 goals have been credited with a goal, only five goalies have actually scored by shooting the puck on net. (In the table, those goalies are marked with SOG in the last column.) Ron Hextall has two of those goals. Hextall's goals are more impressive than getting a goal credited to you due to an own goal by the opposing team. Marty has simply played so long that he has been the benefactor of two bounces that led to him being credited with a goal. Also of note is that Brodeur is the only goal to have a game winning goal credited to his name.

I personally think Ron Hextall's two goals are more impressive then Brodeur's simply because they were actually skilled shots rather than luck. If you watch Hextall score his first goal, it's from in front of the net. Hextall's second career goal is almost identical to Brodeur's shot in that it comes from the side of the net behind the goal line. I believe if Brodeur gets a chance, he could probably replicate the shot from in front of the net. However, if he gets it behind the net, the trapezoid rule for goalies behind the red line would keep Brodeur from scoring behind the goal line.

What do you think, can Brodeur get a second goal from shooting the puck? Can he do it even with the trapezoid rule in place? Also, do you think Hextall or Brodeur has the more impressive goal?

Update: If you want to watch all three goals by Brodeur with better quality, check out this video from the NHL.