Boston Bruins defenseman Jack Ahcan scored the first goal of his NHL career Thursday in a 4-3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks at TD Garden, and now has a souvenir he’ll treasure for the rest of his career.
Although when asked about what he’ll being doing with the memento, the 24-year-old Ahcan hinted that it won’t be something he treasures individually.
“My mom probably wants it so I’ll give it to her,” Ahcan said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage.
Ahcan had teammates thrilled for him, as well. Bruins winger David Pastrnak, who was able to recall his first career goal like it was yesterday, expressed how memorable the moment is for both Ahcan and the rest of the group.
“Obviously happy for him and first goal is always special and he will always remember so good for him. He earned it,” Pastrnak said, per a team-provided video. “I mean, everybody in the lineup knows how it feels when you score the first time, you know, (like) a huge rock fell out of your chest and obviously we’ll always remember it. So we were happy for him and hopefully many more (to come).”
And while it obviously worked out well for Ahcan, including a creative individual effort to get away from a Blackhawks defender, he joked that he probably shouldn’t have been in the position he was in in the first place.
“Yeah, I was down low, which is not probably where I should have been, but I went down for the puck and (Brad Marchand), gave it to Marchy, and it kind of bounced and I chipped it over the defenseman’s stick and got in the slot and just kind of shot it in. Went in,” Ahcan said.
It was the first point for the left-shot defenseman, who played the eighth game of his career and fifth time this season Thursday. Perhaps Ahcan will be in the lineup again Saturday as the Bruins get set to host the Arizona Coyotes at TD Garden with puck drop set for 7 p.m. ET on NESN.
