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No Cash For Kid Who Made $50,000 Hockey Shot

A quick follow-up to the story of the Minnesota family that looked like it had won $50,000 — until dad came forward to say that the boy who had made a lucky hockey shot wasn't the son who was supposed to have taken it:

As the Smith family discussed on NBC-TV's The Today Show this morning, organizers of the contest have decided they won't give the prize to 11-year-old Nate (who took the shot, instead of his identical twin Nick, whose name was on the ticket). Instead, the promoters are donating to youth hockey leagues in Minnesota, Today reports. (Note at 3:45 p.m. ET: While Today said the promoter will donate $40,000 to two youth hockey organizations, the company says it is giving $20,000 to two organizations.)

The dad, Pat Smith, told Today that coming forward was not only the right thing to do, but also a valuable lesson for his sons: "They learned that honesty is always the best policy, and you can never go wrong telling the truth."

"Some people wouldn't tell the truth, so it's cool that we did," Nate Smith added.

The contest — which cost $10 to enter — required shooting the 3-inch puck 89 feet down the ice and into a 3.5-inch hole in a board laid over the mouth of the goal, as our colleague Bill Chappell previously reported.

If you haven't seen the shot, KARE-TV has it here.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.
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