A young Finn opened his goal account in the NHL.
Matias Maccelli, 63, of Arizona Coyotes, finished the first NHL goal of his career behind Matt Murray. AOP / USA Today Sports
Arizona Coyotes’ 21-year-old Matias Maccelli is the newest Finnish goal scorer in the NHL.
Maccelli struck the first NHL goal of his career against Ottawa Senators, taking his team to a safe-fought 4-0 lead in 32.35.
The Finnish berth, born in Turku, was the first to be reached by the Sens guard Matt Murrayn in front of him to fight the puck, turned the puck on the knuckle and slid it coldly past Murray to the finish.
If the tweet is not visible, Maccell’s goal can be viewed from here.
The match seemed safe at this point in the game, and Coyotes was a disappointment, however.
The Senators loaded three goals in the second round, narrowing Coyotes ’lead to one goal. Two of the goals were marked Parker Kellyn names.
The final round started nightmarish for Coyotes, as after 56 seconds the Senators leveled to 4-4 and less than a minute later Nick Paul took over the senators for the first time.
In keeping with the roller coaster-like nature of the match, Coyotes was not paralyzed – quite the contrary. The coyote flock hit four more hits and finally won the match with 8-5 goals.
The absolute number one star for Coyotes and the entire match was Nick Schmaltz, who raged completely unstoppable. The American striker uploaded two goals and as many as seven points to the Senators ’net.
At the same time, Schmaltz set a companion record for new faith.
The NHL troughs last saw a similar points surge in 2012. At the time, Edmonton Oilers Sam Gagner hit eight points in one match.
The match was only the second in the NHL for Maccell, as he made his debut in the league just a couple of days earlier.