Rookie defenseman Alexander Nikishin nets his first NHL goal, a thrilling moment in his young career.
Carolina Hurricanes rookie defenseman Alexander Nikishin has scored his first career NHL goal, just four games into his regular season career.
The highly touted Russian blueliner has been close quite a few times, especially when he hit the goal post on a 2-on-1 on Tuesday, but he finally got his.
"You definitely know the talent is there," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour. "We talk about it all the time. It's the NHL. It's a really tough league to just get thrown into and with learning the language, but I really think he's just scratching the surface. There's a lot of raw ability there and that was a big goal to kind of put the game away."
Early into the third period, Nikishin found some soft space in the slot as the Hurricanes' top line was going to work and Sebastian Aho quickly found the activating defenseman.
Nikishin made no mistake, rifling the puck past Anaheim Ducks goaltender Lukas Dostal and you could tell how much that first one meant to him.
"It was fun to see Niki get his first goal," said goaltender Frederik Andersen ."That was awesome."
Here's to many more, Niki!
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