Saucer pass

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The saucer pass is an ice hockey term, which means passing the puck to someone else so it flies in air like a flying saucer. This makes the pass very difficult to intercept by opposing players but will land flat on the ice making it simple to control for the receiving player. The saucer pass is used nowadays widely due the difficult interception of it. Under normal conditions it needs very skilled player to intercept a saucer pass with an ice hockey stick. Usual height of a saucer pass depends surrounding opposing players. If the pass is given to front of the goal within few meters radius, it usually raises maximum of 30 centimeters abouve the ice level. In case of "a torpedo attack" assisted with a tens of meters saucer pass from own defense area, the pass can easily rise over 3 meters from ice to avoid of being captured with the opposing players's glove (capturing a pass with a stick over own shoulder level or goal's height at close range of goal is prohibited).

The inventor of the saucer pass is commonly considered the Finnish ice hockey legend, Raimo Helminen. According the book "Raipe - Vaatimattomuuden lyhyt oppimäärä", he invented the pass when he was playing against grown-up men from neighbourhood when he was young child in Koivistonkylä, Tampere, Finland.