Breaking News: The $50K Hockey Shot Lesson!

Boy Makes $50K Hockey Shot,

But It's The Wrong Boy!

Pat Smith and his twin sons, Nate and Nick, were at a charity hockey game Thursday when he purchased three $10 raffle tickets for a chance to hit a near-impossible hockey shot, with a $50,000 prize. One of his sons hit that shot -- but as Pat told organizers the next day, it wasn't the one whose name was on the ticket.

The Faribault, Minn., arena was in a state of pandemonium after Nate Smith sent a hockey puck from center ice into the goal -- the 3-inch puck traveled 89 feet down the ice and into a 3.5-inch hole in a board laid over the mouth of the goal.

There was just one snag: Pat Smith had written Nick's name on all three tickets. The identical twins, 11, had agreed that Nick was the best choice, because Nate had only recently had a cast removed from his arm. But Nick didn't want to stick around at halftime, and he told Nate to take the shot if his name was called.

That's just what Nate did, sending a wobbling shot down the ice.

Here's a report on the shot by CNN:


"The puck fluttered and me and the linesman are like, there is no way this is going in," Cale Politoski told KEYC TV of Mankato, Minn. "It was going straight down the net and the linesman said, 'This has a chance,' and it went straight in."

Both of the twins were shocked. Pat Smith says that in the excitement, he went along with the swap -- but he didn't feel right about it the next day.

"I just felt I had to do the right thing," he told ABCNews Monday. "I just think that honesty is more important than any prize or money you could get."

I have heard it said that, "Christianity is not what you are in the light but what you are in the dark."  Meaning, your true colors come out when no one is watching or would ever find our if you did something wrong.  The above story illustrates a powerful conviction to do what is right regardless of the consequences.