A fan at a Cleveland Monsters game reached over to block a puck that came screaming out of the ice towards the head of a 4-year-old boy named Nasir.
Sitting in bed that night, Nasir’s mother Asia Davis shuttered to think what would have happened if the fan hadn’t been there. She resolved to try and find the man on social media to offer another round of gratitude at least, or preferably a meal and tickets to another game.
Taking to TikTok, her video imploring the anonymous fan to contact her received more than 4 million views, and, sure enough, reached the feed of Andrew Podolak.
It was a hothouse that Thursday night when Davis, Nasir, and Podolak attended the Monsters’ game. If they won, it would send the team—the Columbus Blue Jackets’s official affiliate club for the AHL—into the playoffs.
With a minute to go, 33-year-old Davis took out her smartphone to record the hectic closing stages seconds before a player deflected a pass which came fizzing out into the crowd. Davis didn’t have time to react, whilst Nasir didn’t even see the puck. Fortunately, Podolak did, and diving from a seated position with his arms outstretched, blocked it from smacking into the boy’s head.
Davis told the Washington Post that the call was so close, ice crystals from the puck were covering Nasir’s hair.
“I owe that man lunch or dinner, another thank you,” Davis said in her video, “… because I cannot imagine my baby getting hit with that hockey puck.”
Senses numbed by adrenaline, she joked with Podolak at the time that he should be a goaltender, and asked him to pose for a photo with Nasir holding the puck which some kids in the seats behind had offered him.
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Leaving the arena though, the reality of what had happened set in and she began to feel sick. Calling the team, Davis asked if they could identify the man by his seat number. While they asked for some more time to find out, she made the TikTok video which did the trick.
Later on, Podolak, Nasir, and Davis were reunited in front of news cameras at a playoff game courtesy of the Cleveland Monsters. After recounting the story to the media, the three ceremonially dropped the puck for the match before adjourning to rink-side seats to watch the game.
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Davis admitted she was nervous, and so the three sat as they had done on the fateful Thursday night—with Nasir between them in case Podolak’s heroics were required again.
For his part, Nasir loved the whole experience, and sleeps with the puck that Podolak saved him from every night.
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