(Video Courtesy: IG/el_pinche_gabacho)

MARQUETTE, Mich. (WJMN) – A little luck plus a lot of skill is shooting Jordan Nagelkirk into the online spotlight.

“It was a late night hockey game just for fun and, you know, you just get a lucky break every now and then where you do something crazy,” said Jordan Nagelkirk the man behind the viral video.

Nagelkirk captured this now viral video using a Go Pro while playing in a local beer hockey league in Portland, Oregon.

It has been shared by the NHL, Barstool Sports, and multiple big-name hockey blogs and has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

“I’m an old school hockey fan so I found these great 1990’s Brian’s USA hockey pads. I bought them and they got like 50 straps on them. First night wearing them one of the straps goes. The faceoff is on the opposite side of the ice so I’m trying to fix my strap thinking they’re not going to rush me. Win the faceoff and they’re on the rush. I look up and he’s coming down. I still have my strap loose. I’ve been kind of playing with the Hasek roll move now. It’s just kind of a fun flair. I pull that out, it works. My wonderful defenseman turns the puck over in the corner and sends it right back to the guy in the slot. You know, fortunaltey I still have some flexibility. So, I was able to pull off that split save, it was pretty fun. I knew right after, the refs came down and said that’s a keep clip for sure,” said Nagelkirk.

The video was far from an overnight success.

“I think I just threw it up on my small Instagram or YouTube and there is a goalie group on Facebook. That kind of picked up steam and shared around a bit. I think TSN picked it up at first then it just kind of went off from there. It went dead for 2 years. I think I posted the anniversary of me posting it was a couple days ago. I posted that saying ‘Hey NHL, you havent called me yet…Looking for my contract.” It just picked up steam again and went all over the place. It’s been kind of wild.”

Nagelkirk who is a former Marquette hockey player still has yet to receive that contract, but this may be the next best thing.

“I love the position of goaltending. I’ve been doing it for virtually my whole life. I have my moments where I can make some pretty cool stuff happen. It’s pretty neat to see that going out in the world and have other people recognize that as well. It’s a good feeling. It’s a good pump up my tires, you know, make me feel pretty good. For a ‘beer leaguer’ this is probably as good as it gets. Next to, you know, getting called up as an emergency goaltender for an NHL team this is right up there. It’s pretty neat just being recognized, you know, in a sport you love to play for fun.”

None of this would have been possible without the Little Cuties Hockey League.

“If anybody wants to, you know, link up and follow the Little Cuties Hockey Club on Instagram and Facebook that’d be huge. We’re just a group of great guys that love hockey and travel around the country to play in tournaments,” said Nagelkirk.

Little Cuties Facebook Page: CLICK HERE

Little Cuties Instagram: CLICK HERE

Little Cuties Shop: CLICK HERE

Since this story originally aired on WJMN, our story has been viewed nearly 200,000 times. On Wednesday, Sports Director Jake Durant was a guest on Newsfeed Now, Nexstar’s daily digital newscast.

Jake has been speaking with Nagelkirk over the last few days. He says he’s been in contact with a company that is looking to get him some new goalie pads to upgrade from the older Brian’s pads.

Nagelkirk also had another video featured on the NHL’s social media pages. Marquette’s Lower Harbor froze over, creating a transluen rink on the shores of Lake Superior. This would be his second viral video. We’ll be watching to see if he can get the hat trick.

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