SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Noah Gregor got the Florida Panthers off to a fast start Tuesday night. A historically fast start, that is.
Gregor scored only eight seconds into Florida’s game with the Ottawa Senators, taking advantage of a fortunate bounce to beat goalie Linus Ullmark for a 1-0 lead — the fastest goal in Panthers history and the fastest goal scored to start a game in the NHL this season.
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It was two seconds faster than Florida’s previous record to start a regular-season game; Johan Garpenlov scored 10 seconds into the Panthers’ matchup against the Colorado Avalanche on Oct. 17, 1996.
Gregor’s goal was set up like this: Florida’s Tomas Nosek won the opening faceoff and played the puck back to defenseman Seth Jones, who dumped it into the Ottawa zone to the left of Ullmark. The puck hit the end boards and bounced back into the slot, away from defenseman Jordan Spence and only a few feet in front of Ullmark.
Gregor pounced on it, and just like that it was 1-0 Florida.
It was the start of a huge early flurry of offense for the Panthers, who chased Ullmark after taking a 5-0 lead in the game’s first 14:36. Ullmark gave up the five goals on 16 shots.
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Entering Tuesday night, the fastest-to-start-a-game goals in the NHL this season both came at the 11-second mark. Florida’s A.J. Greer scored one against Nashville on Nov. 24, and Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel also got one that quickly against Boston on Feb. 1 in an outdoor game at Tampa.
The record for the fastest goal to start a game is at the 5-second mark, which the NHL says has been done four times: Merlyn Phillips did it in 1926 for the Montreal Maroons, Doug Smail did it for the Winnipeg Jets in 1981, Bryan Trottier did it for the New York Islanders in 1984 and Alexander Mogilny did it for Buffalo in 1991.
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