Devon Toews made his first National Hockey League goal count.
The former Surrey Eagles defenceman, who made his NHL debut with the New York Islanders just before Christmas, scored his first career NHL goal Thursday night – an overtime winner against the Chicago Blackhawks.
“It feels good to score and get the two points – it’s huge for our team,” Toews said in a media scrum following the 3-2 victory.
“To be able to contribute, it feels good.”
The @EASPORTSNHL OT winner.
— New York Islanders (@NYIslanders) January 4, 2019
Brought to you by @DevonToews6! #YesYesYes pic.twitter.com/33ZYdQhoFz
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On the play that led to the former BC Hockey Leaguer’s winning tally, the rookie defenceman – who had spent the last two-and-a-half seasons with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the Islanders’ American Hockey League affiliate – made a pass to Islanders’ forward Josh Bailey just inside the Blackhawks’ blue-line. He then skated deeper into the Chicago zone, took a return feed from Bailey and fired a shot on Chicago netminder Colin Delia.
Delia made the initial save, but the rebound popped right back to Toews, who fired it into the net.
“Bails made a nice play over to me – I thought the goalie made a nice save on the first one but I thought he was a little scrambled, so I just put (the rebound) back five-hole towards the net and it went in,” Toews explained.
Toews, an Abbotsford native, played for the Surrey Eagles from 2011 until 2013, before leaving to play for Quinnipiac University in the NCAA. He was drafted by the Islanders in the fourth round of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft.
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