Photo by Mike Ridewood/Getty Images
At 8:33 of the third period, Iginla shot the puck towards the Minnesota Wild net and it bounced off Mikko Koivu’s skate and into the net past Nicklas Backstrom. The Saddledome crowd erupted, as did Flames fans watching at home across the country.
Iginla’s 500th goal also gives him the distinction of being only the 15th player to score 500 NHL goals with the same team. Iggy has been a fixture in Calgary for many years and his goal immediately sent both “Iggy” and “Jarome Iginla” onto the Twitter trending topics list. Also of note: of Iggy’s 500 goals, 80 of them are game-winning goals. To put it in perspective, Wayne Gretzky had 91 game winners in his career.
The only other active 500+ goal players in the NHL at the moment are Jaromir Jagr and Teemu Selanne.
Here is the video of the goal:
If you’re browsing on mobile, you won’t be able to see the next video, but it’s my preferred way to watch Iggy’s #500 goal, thanks to Hall of Famer Peter Maher’s voiceover on it. It’s about 1000 times better than the CBC guys on the YouTube version. Enjoy!
Greg is the founder of Red Mile Blog has been following the Flames through good times and bad since they arrived in Calgary in the early 80s. He has written hundreds of articles on the Flames since 2005 and considers himself an expert on hockey inconsistency and frustration. He shoots right and usually plays defence, but has been known to jump up in the rush. He is a 2-time CAHL men's league champion and knows the sweet taste of beer from a Cup.
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