"Unanswered" Goals

Following Russia's shocking comeback after being down 3-0 to Canada after two periods in the gold medal game of the 2011 World Junior Tournament, many described the Russians as having scored "five unanswered goals".

No, they did not!

Canada was already leading by 3. Therefore, the first 3 goals scored by the Russians were the "answers" to the 3 goals Canada had already scored.

Once the Russians "answered" Canada's 3 goals, the Russians proceeded to score 2 "unanswered" goals that Canada needed to, and were unable to, answer.

Yes, the Russians scored five consecutive goals, but only two of their goals were unanswered goals.

"Unanswered goals" indicates the margin that a team leads by that the other team needs to answer, while the proper "consecutive goals" should be used to indicate the scoring streak a team is on, rather than the overused, lazy, cliched, misused and all too frequently incorrect "unanswered goals".

Please radio, TV and print media (both printed and online), use "consecutive" from now on to describe a scoring streak during a game.