Liam Ohgren made a strong first impression and held his own during his NHL debut with the Minnesota Wild on Friday night despite not finding the scoresheet in a 7-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights inside T-Mobile Arena.
The 20-year-old Ohgren was one of the few bright spots in a blowout loss that could best be described as ugly.
“Liam I thought played well,” Wild coach John Hynes told the media after the game. “I think he's competitive, he's got good speed and seems like he’s got good hockey sense. In a difficult game to play in, I was impressed with him. I think that there's a lot there. From a bad night, that's an encouraging sign.”
Ohgren skated on the left side of the third line with Marat Khusnutdinov at center and Vinni Lettieri on the right side. Ohgren led the Wild in power play ice time at three minutes and 10 seconds and finished the game with two shots, two hits and a 14:07 time-on-ice total.
With the 20-year-old on the ice, the Wild controlled 54.17 percent of the on-ice Corsi share and 73.77 percent of the expected goal share (third best), according to Natural Stat Trick.
“First NHL game, it's been my dream since I started playing hockey,” Ohgren told the media after practice Thursday. “It's going to be special, for sure, and it's really fun (that) it's going to be in Vegas.”
Ohgren didn't expect to be in this position and make his NHL debut this season, telling the media “not at all,” yet here he is, and he played well.
The Wild reassigned Ohgren to the Iowa Wild on April 2 after his season in the Swedish Hockey League ended early. Ohgren and Farjestad BK were swept in the first round of the playoffs by Rogle BK. Ohgren scored 12 goals and 19 points in 26 games this season.
Then the Wild recalled Ohgren from Iowa on Wednesday after he skated with Minnesota's AHL affiliate for three contests. Now, he's up with the Wild, he made his debut and has an opportunity to keep making an impression in these final three games of the season.
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