Anton Johansson has caught on quickly since he snuck onto the Detroit Red Wings following a monster preseason.
On Tuesday, Johansson notched his first-ever NHL point. In Thursday's win over the Philadelphia Flyers, he scored his first NHL goal in highlight-reel fashion.
Johansson was serving a two-minute minor for interference on Porter Martone. When the penalty ended, Johansson initially looked like he was going back to the bench. But he understood that if he stayed out on the ice, he had a potential scoring chance when Detroit retook possession of the puck.
The puck landed on Dylan Larkin's stick, and he raced through the neutral zone and toward the circle. Near the top of the right circle, Larkin found Johansson wide open at the top of the left circle. Johansson fired the puck into the net on a one-timer, collecting his first career goal in dramatic fashion.
This was Johansson's seventh NHL game. It would've been chalked up as a rookie mistake if he went back to the bench following the penalty. Instead, he had enough awareness to understand that Detroit had a legitimate scoring sequence coming up.
That's a heads-up play that many rookies wouldn't think to make. And it's why Johansson has been given the opportunity to stick around with the Red Wings through the early stages of the season.
Teams that have players who can make heads-up plays like what we saw from Johansson on Thursday night tend to win. Given the circumstances surrounding this game, with the Red Wings trailing 1-0 to arguably the NHL's worst team, Johansson helped shift momentum.
It's the kind of play that naturally shifts momentum several times throughout an 84-game (formerly 82-game) season. How often do we see players exit the penalty box and motion as if they're skating back toward the bench, only to stay out there when they realize their team regained the puck? At the very least, it leads to scoring chances.
Anton Johansson wasn't the only youngster to make a big play on Thursday night. Daniil Tarasov held the fort down in the net, stopping 17 of 18 shots, good for a .944 save percentage. He also stepped up when the Red Wings were on the penalty kill.
Nate Danielson, whose role looked different on Thursday , recorded the secondary assist on Andrew Copp's game-winning goal . Danielson made a nice play on the puck near the boards, getting it over to Michael Rasmussen behind the net.
Rasmussen did one heck of a job keeping the puck away from incoming Flyers players who tried to get a stick on it. He dished the puck in front of the net to Copp, who did the rest. That goal wasn't happening if Danielson wasn't quick to get the puck out to Rasmussen.
Overall, it was another good night for a batch of Red Wings youngsters, with Johansson leading the charge. Now, it's on to the next one to see if they can keep enjoying repeat performances.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
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