Dierks Bentley scores in Blues Alumni charity hockey game

When country music star Dierks Bentley was awarded a penalty shot in a 5-5 charity hockey game in St. Louis on Friday night, everyone in the packed Centene Community Ice Center was probably wondering…

What is he thinkin’

Turns out, Dierks was thinking about going wide left, then placing a perfect shot between the pads of former NHL goalie Ben Scrivens to give the Blues Alumni team a 6-5 lead with 13 minutes to go.

“(Awarding me) the penalty shot was questionable, but we’re not gonna talk about that, we’re gonna talk about the goal,” Bentley told stlouisblues.com after the game. “It was a nice little move from left to right to get him to split, so I got the five-hole goal. At first I thought maybe he was being nice and letting me have the goal, but upon further review it looks like he was actually really trying and it was a legit goal. It was pretty cool for me to score a goal in the presence of all these NHL greats - definitely a career highlight for me.”

The country hitmaker has had plenty of highlights. After launching his career in 2003 with What Was I Thinkin’ - a debut single that went to No. 1 - Bentley has released 10 studio albums that have produced 27 singles on the Hot Country Songs Chart - 18 of which have gone to the top.

The charity game ended in a 7-7 tie — there could be no losers in a game organized by former Blue Kelly Chase, who was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia last November. The game featured Blues legends such as Pierre Turgeon and Scott Young pitted against NHL Alumni such as Chris Chelios and Ed Belfour. Celebrity coaches included Brett Hull, Garth Brooks and Sean Payton.

Proceeds from the game, along with a $200,000 commitment from the St. Louis Blues’ Hockey Fights Cancer efforts, provided a $600,000 donation to the Jimmy V Foundation to benefit cancer research at Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis.

“I met Kelly Chase orginally up in Idaho when my son skated at the Gretzky Hockey School camp up there,” Bentley said. “I’ve known him now for five years, and he’s a great guy. When he called me up and told me about his cancer, I was devastated, but when this opportunity came up, I was happy to come out here and do my small part to make this night successful.”