Meet David Ayres, the Hurricanes' emergency goalie. He is a Zamboni driver who will practice with Maple Leafs

Saturday night brought a moment everyone in the hockey world — except the Toronto Maple Leafs and their fans — could rally around: an emergency goalie victory.

After Carolina goalies James Reimer and Petr Mrazek left because of injuries, the Hurricanes were forced to turn to 42-year-old David Ayres, who was watching the game at Scotiabank Arena with his wife. (Home teams are required to have an emergency goalie on-call who is available to either team.)

Ayres entered in the middle of the second period after Mrazek went down. Even though he allowed two goals on the first two shots against, Ayres made the next eight stops to preserve the 6-3 win. 

He got paid $500 per a try-out agreement contract and was allowed to keep his jersey.

But that’s just one part of this feel-good story.

Here are some other things to know about Ayres, who was born in Whitby, Ontario.

He works for the Maple Leafs organization

Ayres is a Zamboni driver for the Maple Leafs’ American Hockey League team, the Toronto Marlies. According to FOX Sports Carolinas, he is also a maintenance man at the Marlies’ arena, the Coca-Cola Coliseum.

He has also been a practice goalie with the Leafs and Marlies for the last eight years. In fact, Ayres will be practicing with the Leafs at 12:30 p.m. ET on Sunday.

“I’m actually going to go and practice with the boys tomorrow,” Ayres told FOX Sports Carolinas in his post-game interview. “So I’m probably going to get ripped pretty hard. I’m going to take the game puck with me and show it to them.”

Health hardship

“I went through a kidney transplant 15 years ago,” Ayres told Sportsnet.ca. “Never thought I was gonna play hockey again at that moment,”

Shirts for sale 

Immediately after the game, the Hurricanes made Ayres shirts available for sale ($28). They later tweeted that Ayres will be profiting off the shirts, and that they would also donate proceeds to a kidney foundation.

How he found out he was needed

Once Reimer got injured, Ayres made his way down from the stands just in case he was needed if Mrazek got hurt. 

“I had a couple of text messages that told me to get in there,” Ayres said. “I hadn’t seen the footage (of Mrazek’s injury). I was in the media room by myself and a guy came in and said, ‘Get going. Get ready.’

Embracing the moment

Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amor, a 21-year NHL player, had never seen anything like it.

“It’s pretty special,” Brind’Amour said. “I told the guys after the game, ‘Thank him because that just gave (us) an incredible memory.’”

“You kind of think, ‘Oh well how’s this gonna end up?’” Brind’Amour said. “That’s incredible. That’s why you do this.”

His pads

Ayres wore Marlies goalie Kasimir Kaskisuo’s mask and pads, according to Sportsnet, and he had a Leafs T-shirt under his No. 90 Hurricanes jersey.

NHL history

Ayres (42 years and 194 days old) became the oldest goalie to win his regular-season debut, according to the NHL. Hugh Lehman (Chicago) was 41 years and 21 days old. 

North Carolina governor takes notice

Contributing: The Associated Press