Down 2-1 to HV71 late in an SHL game, Timra coach Olli Jokinen was opting to pull goalie Tim Juel for an extra attacker. Racing to the bench, an alert Juel was noticing that his club had turned the puck over entering the HV71 zone. An HV71 player sent a long shot cascading down the ice toward the vacated net.
Halfway to the bench, Juel came to a sudden stop. He turned, racing back toward his net. Throwing himself to the ice, he got enough of the puck to slow it down. However, it kept on rolling toward the empty net.
Jumping quickly to his feet, Juel was racing again, this time toward his net. He managed to dive and corral the rolling puck a split second before it entered the gaping cage.
Galen räddning av Tim Juel😱 pic.twitter.com/3gcblCbkjB
— TV4 Hockey (@TV4_Hockey) November 14, 2024
Juel recounted his unique double save to Swedish website Sportbladet.
“Olli waved me out to the booth,” Juel recalled. “So when I'm on my way out, I see that we give the puck away at the blue line. It was just a matter of turning around, so it was just a matter of reading the situation. Luckily he didn't send it up in the air so it was just a matter of throwing myself after the ice to block. Luckily it bounced wide and not into the goal. A little skill and a little fluff.”
There was still 1:43 left in regulation time. Just 48 seconds following Juel’s miracle save, Emil Pettersson would score for Timra, sending the game to overtime.
In the extra session, Oliver Kapanen, just recently returned to Timra by the Montreal Canadiens, set up Pettersson for the game winner. Thus, Juel’s save was not only of the spectacular variety, it was a game saver.
“He gave us the victory today,” Kapanen said of Juel.