Toronto Maple Leafs forward Steven Lorentz’s game-winning goal against the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday will go down as one of the most unusual ones of the season.

During a penalty kill early in the third period, Simon Benoit dumped the puck out of the zone for a routine play to try and give his linemates a chance to get some rest. But things took a turn when referee Kelly Sutherland, who was already falling down, accidentally made contact with the puck off his body and had to leave the puck by the boards.

Lorentz raced for the loose puck and was able to generate an odd-man rush before burying a short-handed tally to give the Leafs a 2-1 lead that they held onto.

“ I’m not too sure what happened with the ref.  I was trying to look to get a change and, and I just saw him kind of go down a little bit,” Lorentz said after the game. “ I saw the puck squirt loose, so I thought, ‘You know, I might as well reroute and try and go get a shot on net and aim for the third corner.’ And the rest is history.  But I’ll take that bounce. It seems like I’ve had a few bounces go the other way this year.”

Given the fact that the Leafs gave up a flurry of chances from the Avalanche in this game, with Joseph Woll making 38 saves, the Lorentz goal proved to be all the more important especially since it helped his team win the special teams battle. But they did not rest on their laurels, after getting a gift from the hockey gods and instead played shutdown defence to ensure this one was the difference maker.

Still, it wasn’t lost on the rest of the players the humour in the fluky bounce that went in their favour on Lorentz’s short-handed tally.

“ It’s kind of funny how the hockey gods work out.  Sometimes you get those bounces, sometimes you don’t,” Maple Leafs defenceman Jake McCabe said. “I feel like they have honestly haven’t really been bouncing around with it the last couple of weeks. So it was nice to get a bounce and see Stevie take advantage.”

“ I’ll take it for sure.  You know, bounces happen and it’s unfortunate for them but’s good to be on the right side of it,” goaltender Joseph Woll added.

“The puck was shot out and hit the ref, but I wasn’t looking. I wasn’t paying attention. Good break for us,” head coach Craig Berube said. “I was not very happy with the penalty — not very happy with the call, to be honest with you. But it is what it is.”

It may not have been the kind of setup he envisioned when he grew up watching the Leafs, but Lorentz continues to take pride in being a member of his hometown team and getting big goals that help them win hockey games.  Not a day goes by when he isn’t reminded of how grateful he is to be in his current role.

“ It’s surreal every game. I take pride pulling that jersey over every single game,  and I mean that,” he said. “ Talk to myself scoring a goal like tonight, you think about being a little kid jumping in the glass, so definitely cool.  It’s a job now for me and I take it very seriously, but there’s still that passion, that fire in myself that I love doing what I do.”