The New Jersey Devils may have topped the Vancouver Canucks in a shootout win, but the final score probably isn’t what hockey fans will remember about Friday night’s matchup in British Columbia.
Canucks’ 20-year-old center Elias Pettersson has been the star of the team this season, as the rookie leads the group in points, goals and assists. He had one goal in regulation to give Vancouver a 1-0 lead in the second period, but the Devils caught up and tied the game at 2-2 late in the third. And eventually, the two teams ended up in a shootout.
Pettersson was his team’s only scorer in the tiebreaker, but his goal against New Jersey goalie Mackenzie Blackwood was absolutely filthy.
He pulled Blackwood all the way over to the goaltender’s right side, and after Blackwood was committed too far, Pettersson pulled out some brilliant trickery. The 20-year-old dragged the puck all the way back to the other side of the net and stunningly snuck it in around Blackwood’s skate.
This move is absolutely one of the league’s best shootout goals of the season, and it’s so smooth we just can’t stop watching it. The expressions of the fans in this photo says it all: Even they can’t believe what they witnessed.
Pettersson has 59 points in 60 games this season, and his teammates praised him in awe last month. Via ESPN:
“He [isn’t] scared to dangle,” teammate Nikolay Goldobin says. “He [isn’t] scared of it. He isn’t scared of turning over the puck. And then he makes plays that maybe you don’t expect.”
