Skip to main content

Windsor hockey player's TikTok video goes viral after goalie gets hurt

Share

A Windsor hockey player is getting noticed on social media after stepping up to play net when his team’s goaltender got injured.

Finn Russett posted the video of the U18 game on TikTok on Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, it already had 1.3 million views and was getting shared by sports blogs like Bardown.

“It’s pretty crazy to think about. I just posted it expecting a few people to see it, just for fun and then I wake up in the morning to 1.3 million views and it’s posted on BarDown," Russett said. "That was crazy. I was in disbelief when I saw that.”

Russett explained both goalies were gone for exams and his team only had one call-up, who got hurt.

"There were about seven minutes left in the third period, our goalie got hurt and they had to help him off. We had to play with six skaters so I just decided, you know what, I’m going to go in the net and try to stop as many pucks as I possibly can," he said. 

He took over in net with seven minutes left in the third period, posting that he let in two goals, but made seven or eight nice saves.

"They were trying to decide a bunch of different things… whether we just forfeit, but I didn’t want to forfeit. I wanted to play. So I said, let them go out and play, I’ll just sit in the net and try to stop whatever I can," he said.

“I asked the ref if I could use a blocker and trapper and he said no,” he explained in the comments. “Because I’m still considered a player, we just played with an empty net. A player can’t play with a goalie stick.”

Russett, who is also the captain, said it wasn’t his first time between the pipes - he played goalie until he was 11 years old.

He said the game went better than he expected. 

“Better than I thought! I only let in two goals," he said. "One was a two-on-one, nothing I could’ve done about that. The other one was a scrum in front of the net.”

He said he was the only other one on the team with any goalie experience.

- With files from CTV News Windsor's Travis Fortnum

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

Stay Connected