NHL History: Steve Smith scores on his own net

Talk about having a bad day.

It was today in 1986 that Steve Smith broke the hearts of so many by inadvertently scoring on his own net effectively eliminating the Edmonton Oilers from playoff contention.

The Oilers and Flames had met in the playoffs for only the third time in the young rivalry.

Edmonton had swept the Vancouver Canucks in the first round of the playoffs before squaring up against Calgary in the second series. The two teams had literally gone back and forth through the first six games of the series before meeting up for game seven at Northlands coliseum.

Calgary got up 2-0 with a Hakan Loob goal in the first frame before Jim Peplinski scored minutes into the second. However, the lead didn’t last long as Glenn Anderson and Mark Messier would score for the Oilers before the period was over.

Five minutes into the third frame, Flames forward Perry Berezan had chipped the puck into the Oilers end and went off for a line change. Steve Smith corraled the puck and went to make a pass out of the zone, but misjudged where goalie Grant Fuhr was.

Nothing could be done as the puck slid into the net. While the own goal was obviously a killer giving Calgary a 3-2 lead, Edmonton had almost 15 minutes of the game left to get themselves back into it.

Calgary ended up winning the series and eventually made it to the cup finals as Smith was forever ridiculed. The worst part of it all? The incident happened on Smith’s 23rd birthday.

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