In a historic first, young’uns Trevor Zegras and Connor Bedard both scored Lacrosse-style Michigan goals.
Chicago Blackhawks’ Bedard scored his 13th goal of the season against St Louis Blues. Later the Saturday, Zegras matched Bedard’s Michigan-style goal against the Seattle Kraken for the Anaheim Ducks.
⚠️ CONNOR BEDARD MICHIGAN GOAL‼️ THIS IS NOT A DRILL. ⚠️ pic.twitter.com/KPWcsVGzo0
— NHL (@NHL) December 24, 2024
“When I was pretty young [I scored one], but I’ve got a lot of attempts, so it was good to kind of see one go in. There was just no one there and I just thought it was a good play and I kind of went for it,” said Bedard to NBC Sports Chicago during the first intermission.
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Zegras, playing after a 20-game break, scored his third career NHL Michigan. On January 27, 2022, Zegras scored an unassisted goal for Michigan against the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre. On April 1, 2022, he scored another goal for Michigan against the Arizona Coyotes.
ZEGRAS RETURNS TO THE LINEUP AND HITS THE MICHIGAN! 🥵 pic.twitter.com/3cqQyxwGTm
— NHL (@NHL) December 24, 2023
In addition, On December 7, 2021, Anaheim Ducks forward Trevor Zegras collaborated with Sonny Milano to develop an alley-oop variation of the Michigan goal.
What is a Lacrosse or a Michigan-style goal?
A Michigan goal (also known as a high wrap, a Zorro, or by other names) is a goal scored by an attacker who begins behind the opposition net, lifts the puck onto their stick, moves their stick around to the top corner of the net, and shoots the puck into the net at close range.
Bill Armstrong, the pioneer of the high wrap taught the technique to Mike Legg. Mike tried it after much discussion about legalities and attempted one against the Minnesota Golden Gophers for Michigan Wolverines.
The goal has been named after Mike’s alma mater. Andrei Svechnikov, in 2019, successfully attempted the NHL’s first Michigan. Svechnikov scored another one days later.
Filip Forsberg has also played the same technique in the NHL before.
