NHL | Anton Lundell solved the puck problem, the beauty of which he already realized as a child: “It doesn’t get much better”

Finn the puck boy visited New York’s legendary Madison Square Garden at the age of 13 with his family.

“It was the first time I realized how great the arena is and how much has happened there,” he said recalled this spring.

Early on Friday Finnish time, the same boy, now 22 years old Anton Lundell, decided the Florida Panthers’ extremely important away victory over the New York Rangers in the same hall. Today, he overshadowed bigger stars, such as the captain of his team Alexander Barkov.

“It was my wildest dream to play in the NHL, playoffs and conference finals. It doesn’t get much better than this,” Lundell said after the match in an interview with ESPN.

Little however, it can get better. The Panthers lead the conference finals 3-2. So it’s just one victory away from the Stanley Cup finals, and it has a chance to settle the matter on home ice in Florida.

And even that is no longer enough for Lundell and partners.

The Panthers reached the NHL finals already last season, but lost it to the Vegas Golden Knights in five games. Now, the Edmonton Oilers or Dallas Stars would be coming up from the other side of the chart.

Even Lundell, despite his young age, is not a chick, but almost a playoff hero. He already has 45 playoff games under his belt.

Lundell shot a 2–1 goal with his wrist in 50:22. He got the puck Eetu Luostarinen from the pass, and it slipped into the net by Rangers’ Russian keeper by Igor Shestjorkin armpit.

“Perhaps the biggest goal of his career,” the ESPN commentator enthused.

Oli Lundell was already in a large part in the deciding game of the previous series, when he equalized and scored the winning goal in Boston. Lundell has scored 3+8 in 16 games in these playoffs – now more than in 21 games last spring.

in New York Lundell’s decisive hit was not officially the winning goal, because… Sam Bennett hit an empty net for the Panthers, the Rangers Alexis Lafrenière still had time to make the final score 2–3 with a consolation goal.

“We knew exactly how we had to play. Of course, the opponent also created chances, but ‘Bob’ was great”, Lundell praised the goalkeeper Sergei Bobrovsky.