Canadian goalie Hart wins at waiting game again, this time besting Ritz
BUFFALO, N.Y. — It might have been Carter Hart’s biggest cheer of the game and it didn’t even come during regulation time.
Hart, Canada’s starting goaltender at the world junior hockey championship, has a number of habits that he uses to stay focused. One of them is that he has to be the last player off the ice at the end of a period. In Canada’s 8-2 quarterfinal rout of Switzerland on Tuesday, he was challenged by Swiss backup goalie Matteo Ritz in the first intermission.
After 10 minutes of waiting, Hart realized Ritz wasn’t going anywhere. So the Canadian hid in the tunnel, then sprinted back out to the delight of the crowd after Ritz had gone to the Swiss locker-room.
“I was getting tired of waiting so I hopped off and then once I got off, he got off, so I quickly went back out, did a little loop, and came in,” said Hart with a laugh. “The loop counts because I was still last off.”