WATCH: Juraj Slafkovsky relishes his first NHL goal, hands Canadiens victory against Coyotes
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Juraj Slafkovsky scores first NHL goal
Montreal Canadiens forward Juraj Slafkovsky got mystified by the lights and cheers that followed his first NHL goal against the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday. This stupefying event took place at Bell Centre where the fans roared in celebration after the Canadiens’ 6-2 win, mostly for the No. 1 pick of the 2022 draft.
His lightning shot gave the team a 4-0 lead and the Habs captain pushed it to 5-0 on a penalty shot in the second period. As Slafkovsky’s goal was announced, he himself was dazed by it. Canadien fans showered claps for his rocket wrist shot at 8:17 of the second period.
He stated, “I don’t even remember how I scored the goal”. “I just went to celebrate because I think that’s the best part of the goal, the [celebration]. I was focused more on the celebration than how I scored.”
“It’s probably the best crowd, and I think there’s nothing better that could happen after [my] first NHL goal than what happened out there”. “It’s amazing.”
Fans serenaded Juraj Slafkovsky after his first goal at Bell Centre
Following captain Nick Suzuki and Slafkovsky’s performance, winger Cole Caufield, and goalie Jake Allen scored and made 25 saves for the team. Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis commented, “I thought we had a deep-game mentality early and possessing in the O-zone”.
“We got a few good bounces. We forced a team to turn pucks over, we played on top of them, which I felt we really did against [the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday in a 3-2 overtime win], and we were opportunistic with our chances.”
Later, the No. 1 pick waved and smiled at the crowd at Bell Centre. His teammate and winger Brendan Gallagher urged him to stand up and wave, but he was in a daze at what happened. Earlier in the game, the Canadiens shared a Juraj “Smilekovsky” image on social media.
Maybe that did have a positive effect on the team Thursday night. Coyotes forward Clayton Keller said, “Obviously, this is a tough place to come in to play, and really the last thing you want to do is spot them a few early into the first period”.
“So I think puck management was a big part, and some of that’s just, I guess, mentally not maybe being as prepared as a team as we need to be to start a game.”
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Kaushani Chatterjee
(2169 Articles Published)