“Put the biscuit in the basket” (put the hockey puck in the net)

“Put the biscuit in the basket” is hockey slang that means to put the puck (“biscuit”) in the net (“basket”)—to score a goal. “Put that old biscuit in the basket” was cited in print in 1955.
 
Keith Olbermann, who co-hosted ESPN’s SportsCenter from 1992 to 1997, used “put the biscuit in the basket” as his hockey catchphrase. “Put the biscuit in the basket” is very rarely used in basketball meaning to put the basketball in the basket; however, a basketball does not resemble a biscuit.
   
 
17 February 1955, Springfield (MA) Union, “Indians Rookie Has Stellar Hockey Record in Minors,” pg. 32, col. 1:
he is 23-year-old Earl Johnson, who in addition to establishing himself as the Bob Hope of the dressing room, can really put that old biscuit in the basket.
 
4 October 1961, Springfield (MA) Union, ‘Indians Roar Back To Drub Herd, 6-3,” pg. 29, col. 2:
The Indians broke on top early in the game as Dennis Olson put the biscuit in the basket behind Roger Crozier on a goal mouth play in the fourth minute of the initial session.
 
22 February 1966, The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, OH), “Hornets Whistle as Barrons Gain” by Thomas Place, pg. 28, col. 7:
“We’re still playing pretty good hockey,” Bastien said yesterday. “We’re having a little trouble now finding someone to put the biscuit in the basket (meaning, put the puck in the net.)”
 
19 January 1971, Winnipeg (Manitoba) Free Press, pg. 20, cols. 6-7:
Biscuit In The Basket
Is Current Jet Problem
By REYN DAVIS
(...)
“We just weren’t putting the biscuit in the basket.”
 
Google News Archive
16 June 1978, The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, VA), “Caps offensive-minded in draft” by The Associated Press, pg. 11, col. 4:
Satisfied with his team’s defense, Washington Capitals’ hockey coach Tom McVie said the club’s biggest need was for someone to “put the biscuit in the basket.”
 
Google Groups: rec.sport.hockey
15 Minute Quarters in NHL?
Michael Collingridge
4/15/94
(...)
Many decades ago when I was a lad playing the game I recall my coach calling the net a basket—“Put the biscuit in the basket” he would say.
 
Google Books
May 1996, SPIN magazine, pg. 52, col. 2:
An incomplete sampling of Olbermann’s arsenal includes “he put the biscuit in the basket” (a hockey goal, something he heard on a Canadian newscast of a Ontario Junior Hockey League game); ...
   
Google Books 
Hockey Talk
By Lewis J. Poteet and Aaron Poteet
Nashville, TN: Associated Publishers Group
1996
Pg. 52:
the biscuit - the puck. “Put the biscuit in the basket!”
 
Google Books
ESPN: The Uncensored History
By Michael Freeman
Lanham, MD: Taylor Trade Publishing
2000
Pg. 201:
Instead of simply saying that Wayne Gretzky scored a goal, they’d say he put the “biscuit in the basket.”
 
Google Books
The Rookie Hockey Mom:
How to play the game’s toughest position
By Melissa Walsh
Guilford, CT: Lyons Press
2005
Pg. 51:
She put the biscuit in the basket.
“She scored a goal.”
 
Twitter
Zach Gelb
‏@ZachGelb
NYR going on the power play. Prust to the box 2 for slashing. Major opportunity for the NYR. Put the biscuit in the basket! @scottmcharles
9:25 PM - 29 May 2014