Clint Benedict Clinton Stevenson " Clint " Benedict ( September 25 , 1892 – November 12 , 1976 ) was a Canadian professional goaltender who played for the Ottawa Senators and the Montreal Maroons . He played on four Stanley Cup - winning squads . He was the first goaltender in the National Hockey League ( NHL ) to wear a face mask . He led league goaltenders in shutouts seven times over his professional career . He is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame . Benedict was one of the first great goalies in professional hockey and a great innovator in the sport . He was the first goalie to drop to his knees to stop the puck along the ice . At the time , dropping to the ice was illegal , but Benedict circumvented the rules by pretending to pray on his knees . This earned him the nickname " praying Benny . " The first rule change of the NHL was made to legalize his playing style . Playing career . Benedict played senior - level hockey at 17 , playing for the Ottawa Stewartons of the Ottawa City Senior League in 1909 – 10 , moving to the Ottawa New Edinburgh of the Interprovincial Hockey Union the following season . Benedict joined the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey Association ( NHA ) in the 1912 – 13 season . Although the Senators had at the time future Hall of Famer Percy LeSueur as their starting goaltender , Benedict played 10 games for the club . He played one more season as backup to LeSueur and took over as starting goaltender in the 1914 – 15 season . He led the league in Goals Against Average ( GAA ) that season and the following two seasons to start his career . He played 12 seasons overall for the Senators . After winning three Stanley Cups with the Senators , his career changed in the 1923 – 24 season . Benedict developed a problem with drinking , which at first was kept secret by the Senators . Benedict occasionally played for the Senators while under the effects . In the playoffs , Benedict and the Senators played poorly and were quickly eliminated . Management withheld some of his salary for his behaviour . Benedict sued the team in return and the Senators countersued , revealing in court documents the extent of Benedict ' s behaviour . Once the Ottawa papers found out about the court case , the secret was out . The two sides quickly settled to minimize the publicity . Benedict ' s career with the Senators was finished . On October 20 , 1924 , Benedict was traded along with Punch Broadbent to the expansion Montreal Maroons . It was a new lease on life for Benedict who played for six seasons with the Maroons . In 1926 , he won another Stanley Cup with the Maroons . In 1930 , some 30 years before Jacques Plante popularized the goalie mask , Clint was the first goalie to wear facial protection in the NHL with the Montreal Maroons using it for five games during the 1929 – 30 season . On January 7 , 1930 , he was hit by a shot from Howie Morenz in the face , breaking the bridge of his nose . Benedict was out of action for six weeks . He returned on February 20 , 1930 against the New York Americans wearing the mask . He played with the mask on for five games , the last being on March 4 , 1930 when he got hit in the face during a goal - mouth scramble . He had to leave the game due to blood coming from his nose . It was his last game in the NHL . The next season he played for the Windsor Bulldogs minor pro hockey team and the Maroons farm team , leading them to the IHL championship . In 1932 , Benedict became manager and coach of Saint John Beavers of the Maritime Senior Hockey League , a position he held for two seasons . Benedict was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1965 , much later than would be expected of a player of his ability and career and possibly due to the events of 1924 . Benedict lived to 84 years of age , dying in 1976 in Ottawa .