There was lots of disbelief when World Junior's Sweden team captain Lias Andersson threw his silver medal into the stands after accepting the second-place award following the 3-1 loss to Canada in the final, and one lucky fan caught it.
You might think they would have kept the souvenir, but the man who was shown with the medal around his neack at the 2018 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship in Buffalo gave the medal back to the team.
The man who caught it was Buffalo-native Bill Shaflucas.
Shaflucas told CTV News, “We made eye contact and he looked like he was about to throw it, and I kind of put my hands out…and he threw it.”
Shaflucas was wearing a Rochester Americans jersey at the time, took the jersey and a Team USA jersey off to reveal he was wearing a third jersey --one for Team Sweden-- underneath.
After a brief celebration and getting a photo with the medal around his neck, Shaflucas decided the best thing to do was to try and give the medal back to Andersson.
Shaflucas told CTV News, “His family and friends are going to want that at some point, so I asked security to get me over to the bench side and found someone on the team. (Andersson) wasn’t interested in taking it back from me, but I did give it back through a trainer."
With files from CTV News
#NYR prospect Lias Andersson throws his ?? into the crowd.#WorldJuniors ???? pic.twitter.com/aUrGFvWSit
— BarDown (@BarDown) January 6, 2018