Accountant by day, Blackhawks goalie by night: Scott Foster makes NHL debut in rare circumstance

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Three Blackhawks made their NHL debut on Thursday night. 

Two of them were on the roster. The other was not. Come again?

The Blackhawks' scheduled goaltender to face the Winnipeg Jets — Anton Forsberg — suffered a pregame injury and didn't dress.

Next man up? Collin Delia — recalled from the Rockford IceHogs on Wednesday night. He was expected to get the start on Friday against the Colorado Avalanche, but his opportunity came a day early with Forsberg's injury.

Things were going as good as they could for the 23-year-old netminder. The Blackhawks were up by three goals and he was holding his own, stopping 25 of 27 shots.

But early in the third period, Delia suffered a cramp and would exit the game. Now what?

Enter, Scott Foster. (Who?)

Foster was signed by the Blackhawks on Thursday to an amateur tryout to serve as their emergency goaltender. He's one of a "collection of guys" who are on call for home games should a situation like this one arise. A brief hockey background on Foster: he's a 36-year-old who played four seasons at Western Michigan University from 2002-06. As their goalie, he went 20-22-6 with a .875 save percentage and 3.44 GAA.

When he came into the game, Joel Quenneville's reaction says it all:

After taking some warm-up shots from Jordan Oesterle and Vinnie Hinostroza during a commercial break, it was Foster's time to shine. And boy did he ever.

Foster went 7-for-7 in saves, and the crowd cheered louder after every one. Fans even chanted "Foster! Foster! Foster" a few times after he made a couple of big stops — the biggest coming on Jets' Paul Stastny.

"That’s something you’ll never forget," Foster said. "I mean, you understand what’s happening and they’re going to have a lot of fun with it, so you might as well, too."

The Blackhawks would go on to win by a 6-2 final score. He would also be the No. 1 star of the game.

"I'm an accountant by day," Foster said. "A few hours ago, I was sitting on my computer typing on a 10-key and now I'm standing in front of you guys just finished 14 and a half minutes of NHL hockey."

This isn't the first time the Blackhawks have had to dress an emergency goaltender. Remember Eric Semborski? Though Semborski didn't get to play in a game in 2016, it was a fun story. 

On Thursday, Foster had the chance to. And it's one he'll remember forever.

"From my perspective, this is a dream regardless," Foster said. "This is something that no one can ever take away from me, it's something I can go home and tell my kids and they can tell their friends and whatnot. So it wouldn’t matter from my perspective. Just a ton of fun and a lot of good memories."

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