It was a one in a million shot, but it may not even be worth fifty grand.
An 11-year-old boy entered a halftime raffle at a charity hockey game last Thursday and made the shot of a lifetime, threading a 3-inch puck through a 3½-inch hole from 89 feet away.
But the $50,000 cash prize offered to anyone who could pull off the incredible shot is now in doubt because the boy who filled out the raffle ticket didn’t actually take the shot.
Young ticket holder Nick Smith was outside the arena in Faribault, Minn., when his name was called.
So, standing in for him was his identical twin, Nate, who calmly took the ice before the crowd and pushed the wobbly puck across the ice through the tiny, makeshift goal.
“I was , like, shocked,” Nate told KEYC-TV yesterday. “It was like a one-in-a-million chance.”
The boys’ father, Pat Smith, said he got caught up in the excitement of the moment, but as morning came, his conscience began bothering him.
“The next day, I called back and said it was really Nate who made the shot,” Smith told CBS News. “We thought honesty was the best policy and we wanted to set a good example for our kids.”
Now, it’s up to Odds On Promotions, the event’s insurance carrier, to decide whether to award Nate and his family the prize money.
“Legally it has to be the person whose name is on the ticket,” Odds On general manager April Clark told the Toronto Star on Monday. “We really are very careful about explaining that it has to be the person.”