A college student who has not touched a hockey stick since her high school gym class made the shot of a lifetime Friday.
Morgan Ward, 20, a junior at Minnesota State at Mankato, won a promotion at the college when she buried the puck into a slot at the goal line from 115 feet away to win a $30,000 prize, KARE reported.
"There was was honestly no strategy, I just wanted to make it down the ice," Ward told the television station.
Ward, from St. Clair, Minnesota, received free tickets to the Mavericks' men's hockey at the Verizon Center and texted a promotional code for the chance to take the shot, the Star Tribune reported.
"I was there with my boyfriend (Brody Hanson) and he made me text in, it texted me back saying 'congratulations, you gotta go shoot this puck,'" Ward, who is majoring in business management, told KEYC. "I didn't want to be down there as center of attention. So I (told my boyfriend) 'you gotta go do this, I can't do this, I'm gonna go hide in the bathroom.' He's like 'Morgan, there's 30 grand on the line, what do you got to lose?'"
The contest involved shooting a puck from the far blue line into a tiny opening on the goal line, an opening barely bigger than the width of a puck, KARE reported.
Ward took the shot and saw the puck headed for the opening, but didn't see it go through, the television station reported.
"The only thing going through my head is like 'Don't fall,' and I just wanted to hit it hard enough that it would make it across the ice and not like halfway down," Ward told KEYC. "And then all of a sudden it's like this is actually really close."
Then the puck went through the slot.
"I still don't believe it. It's unreal," Ward told the television station.
Ward said the plans to put her winnings into a savings account or an investment plan, as she "still lives with her parents and wants to get out of there someday," KARE reported.
