Zamboni driver David Ayres makes NHL debut as emergency goalie, helps Hurricanes secure 6-3 win in Toronto

TORONTO — In an unprecedented turn of events, the Carolina Hurricanes had no choice but to put their emergency goalie on the ice against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Forty-two-year-old David Ayres, who drives the Zamboni for the AHL Toronto Marlies and works as a maintenance man at another Toronto arena, came into face the franchise he works for late in the second period.

Ayres was sitting in the stands with his wife at Scotiabank Arena when Carolina Hurricanes goalie James Reimer went down with an injury.

The on-call emergency netminder in Toronto, Ayers left his seat and got half dressed into his gear on the off chance something might happen to Carolina’s second option, Petr Mrazek.

According to NHL rule 5.3:

“In regular League and Playoff games, if both listed goalkeepers are incapacitated, that team shall be entitled to dress and play any available goalkeeper who is eligible. The goalkeeper is eligible to sit on the player’s bench, in uniform. In the event that the two regular goalkeepers are injured or incapacitated in quick succession, the third goalkeeper shall be provided with a reasonable amount of time to get dressed, in addition to a two-minute warm-up (except when he enters the game to defend a penalty shot). If, however, the third goalkeeper is dressed and on the bench when the second goalkeeper becomes incapacitated, the third goalkeeper shall enter the game immediately and no warm-up is permitted.”

Midway through the second period, Ayres noticed his cell phone started to blow up. What he didn’t realize was Mrazek had been hurt in a scary collision with Maple Leafs forward Kyle Clifford and was down on the ice.

The Canes scored on the ensuing power play giving Ayers a 4-1 lead.

The Leafs quickly put two past Ayers cutting the lead to 4-3 in less than two minutes. Ayers didn’t give up another from that point on.

Carolina got two more goals in the third period for a historic 6-3 win.

Ayres is the oldest goalie in NHL history to win his regular-season debut.

“I had a couple of text messages that told me to get in there,” Ayres said in front a throng of reporters. “I hadn’t seen the footage (of Mrazek’s injury). I was in the media room by myself and a guy came in and said, ‘Get going. Get ready.’

“It was wild, it was fun,” said Ayres, who gets paid $500 and gets to keep his jersey.

Ayres, who had a kidney transplant 15 years ago and wasn’t sure if he would ever play hockey again, has been a practice goalie with the Leafs and the club’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, for the last eight years.

The native of nearby Whitby, Ontario, faces shots from professional players on an almost-daily basis during the season, but never thought he’d be called into service in an NHL game.

“These guys were awesome,” Ayres said. “They said to me, ‘Have fun with it, don’t worry about how many goals go in, this is your moment, have fun with it.'”

Not long after the final buzzer, the Hurricanes were hawking T-shirts on Twitter sporting the stand-in goalie’s No. 90.

“It’s pretty special,” Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “I told the guys after the game, ‘Thank him because that just gave (us) an incredible memory.'”

The Carolina Hurricanes announced Sunday that Ayres will officially sound the siren before Tuesday’s game against the Dallas Stars.