Former NC State hockey player Jorge Alves lives the dream for a day, plays for Carolina Hurricanes

Jorge Alves is an equipment manager for the Carolina Hurricanes, and has been with the team for more than a decade. Alves spent a couple of years playing for NC State’s club hockey team and also spent some time in the minors but his playing career went no farther, at least not until Saturday.

The Hurricanes announced Saturday that they were signing Alves, a goaltender, to a professional tryout contract and that Alves would serve as Cam Ward’s backup in Tampa Bay during the game tonight. The Hurricanes lost 3-1, which is a bummer, but it did lead to this:

The signing forced Alves into double duty, leading to unusual photos like this one:

I can’t be completely certain, but there is a pretty good chance that Alves is the first NC State alum ever to play in an NHL game. That’s pretty cool. Watching him getting choked up about all of this: also cool.