Kari Lehtonen robs John Mitchell with save of the year candidate (Video)

Not long after the Dallas Stars cut the Colorado Avalanche's lead to 2-1 early in the third period, they almost gave up a goal moments later. Fortunately for them, Kari Lehtonen is, as Fox Sports Southwest's Daryl Reaugh put it, some sort of spider monkey, because just look at the save he made on John Mitchell:

There was a review to see if the puck actually crossed the goal line in the process, but the video was inconclusive to overrule the "no goal" decision on the ice.

Lehtonen fails to corral the puck, loses his stick, then has to turn himself around to make a desperation lunge across his crease where he managed to get his pad up to make the save. Unbelievable.

Spider monkey, indeed.

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

via Y! Sports Blogs - Yahoo Sports http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/kari-lehtonen-robs-john-mitchell-save-candidate-video-034615391--nhl.html