SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — After seven seconds: Chicago 1, Florida 0.
Just like that, Landon Slaggert got himself a piece of Blackhawks history.
Slaggert scored seven seconds into Chicago's game at the Panthers on Saturday afternoon — the fastest goal to start a game ever for the Blackhawks, according to the NHL record book.
“That's pretty wild,” Slaggert said.
The previous Blackhawks record was set by Brent Sutter, who scored eight seconds into Chicago's 9-4 win over Vancouver on Feb. 5, 1995.
“I was just focused on getting some pressure on their defensemen," Slaggert said. "The puck kind of just squirted to an area and I saw that I could get on it first and, you know, just caught a break. Ended up working out.”
It was the lone hurrah on the day for Chicago: Florida won the game 5-1.
“It's never a good feeling," Florida's Carter Verhaeghe said of giving up the quick goal. "But we kind of just reset from there and played it like a normal game.”
Slaggert's score was the fastest goal to start a game in the NHL this season, edging a goal at the nine-second mark by St. Louis' Robert Thomas against New Jersey on Nov. 27.
Ryan Donato won the opening faceoff, then played the puck into the Florida zone. Slaggert — getting his second goal in just his third game of the season — skated past two Panthers defenders, collected the puck and beat Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky with a backhander.
It was the fastest goal allowed at the start of a game in Florida history, three seconds quicker than Mike Knuble's score for Boston against the Panthers on Feb. 14, 2003. And Donato quickly realized that the goal might be historic for Chicago.
“He was saying in the little pile there that it might be the fastest," Slaggert said. "It's kind of funny to hear.”
There have been only seven regular-season goals have been scored more quickly than Slaggert's marker on Saturday in NHL history, the most recent of those being a goal six seconds into a game by Vancouver’s Alexandre Burrows in what became a 5-2 loss to Detroit on March 16, 2013.
There have been four goals scored five seconds into games — those by Merlyn Phillips of the Montreal Maroons on Dec. 29, 1926, Doug Smail of the Winnipeg Jets on Dec. 20, 1981, Bryan Trottier of the New York Islanders on March 22, 1984, and Alexander Mogilny of the Buffalo Sabres on Dec. 21, 1991.
The three goals scored at the six-second mark: Burrows had one, while Henry Boucha of the Detroit Red Wings on Jan. 28, 1973 and Jean Pronovost of the Pittsburgh Penguins on March 25, 1976 had the others.
Slaggert's goal is the eighth scored at the :07 mark of the first period, the NHL said.
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AP NHL: https://www.apnews.com/hub/NHL
Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press
