One of the great rules and oddities of hockey is that if such an emergency should occur, a fan can come out of the stands or be on-call as the emergency goalie for a team.

We routinely see and hear stories about this happening at the NHL level, the most famous of which happened last year when Scott Foster actually had to come into the game for the Chicago Blackhawks after their starter was injured, making seven saves in 14 minutes to help the Blackhawks hold on to a win over the Winnipeg Jets. For his efforts, Foster was named First Star of the game.

Well last night in Macon, the Mayhem had their own goalie emergency.

We saw earlier in the day that goalie Henry Dill of the Carolina Thunderbirds had been called up by the Mayhem to be the backup for the weekend after Andrew D’Agonstini was called up to Reading of the ECHL.

Apparently Dill didn’t or couldn’t arrive in time for the game, because the arena in Macon posted this tweet below, that was then retweeted by the Mayhem.

That’s right, the arena’s Director of Finance, who we were told by the team is named Mark Maxwell, had to suit up as the emergency backup goalie! And on the night the team rocked their Christmas sweaters no less!

According to our research and his LinkedIn page, Maxwell is a graduate of Ohio University (thus the green trim on his pads, and a fellow MAC grad!) where we assume he played on their club team, is a former Staff Accountant for the Florida Panthers, and previously helped coach a youth team in Canfield, Ohio.

Update: Maxwell reached out on Twitter and said he did not play club in college, but is a men’s league player and that the green pads are in fact a nod to Ohio U.

While Maxwell didn’t get into the game, he did have the best seat in the house for a 4-2 Mayhem win over the visiting Fayetteville Marksmen.

So kudos to Mark for getting to live out our dream, and for making us insanely jealous, by getting to be the emergency goalie last night in Macon! We hope he gets to keep the jersey.