The drama, with a twist, came at halftime raffle shot during a charity game between Shattuck and The World in Faribault, Minn.
The crowd was stunned when the three-inch puck, shot from 89 feet away, sailed right into the tiny three-and-a-half-inch goal. It wasn’t a pro-hockey player — it was 11-year-old Nate Smith smiling behind the hockey stick. Well, at least that’s what the events organizers thought.
The boy who made the amazing shot wasn’t Nick, but his identical twin Nate. When the tickets were drawn, Nick had stepped outside the stadium, so the twins’ father sent Nate out on the ice. And who would have guessed little Nate would hit the $50,000 jackpot?
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One witness told KARE-TV that the place ‘erupted louder than a Stanley Cup game.’
Even the pro NHL players were amazed at little Nate’s precision. “I probably couldn’t have done it,” New York Islander Kyle Okposo told the local paper Faribault Daily. “There’s maybe five of us in the Shattuck locker room who could have done it. That’s a tough shot.”
However, the events management is more hard-nosed than impressed. “Legally, it has to be the person whose name is on the ticket,” April Clark, general manager for Odd On Promotions, the tournament insurance carrier told the Toronto Star. “We really are careful about explaining that it has to be the person.”
Even though the decision to grants the Smiths the $50,000 is pending, the twins’ father, Pat does not regret speaking up.
“We thought honesty was the best policy,” he told KEYC-TV. “We wanted to set a good example for our kids.”
If granted, the prize money will go to the twins’ college fund.
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