The ensuing shaving cream pie to the face – a rite of passage in postgame interviews across sports – left teammates laughing, especially as Fantilli continued to answer questions with the offending substance covering his face and hair.
“Let’s keep going, I guess,” Fantilli said through the laughter.
How did that feel?
“It felt great,” Fantilli said.
Of course, the better feeling came about half an hour earlier, when Fantilli’s first NHL goal tickled the twine. With 5:19 to go in a 3-3 game and the Blue Jackets on the power play, Fantilli created just enough space for himself in the middle of the ice to take a feed from Ivan Provorov and quickly let go a shot that was over goalie Filip Gustavsson’s glove before he could even react to it.
Fantilli immediately pumped his fist, then turned to celebrate with teammates as Cole Sillinger skated to the net to get the puck.
“Obviously it feels great,” Fantilli said. “It’s every kid’s dream to get their first NHL goal, but to be honest, I was really happy with the way I was playing away from the puck as well up to this point. Just working hard. It was bound to happen at some point. I’m just happy it was able to go in tonight.”
To be fair, Fantilli could have finished with a hat trick with the way he played in St. Paul, as he nearly scored twice on an earlier shift, drawing a save out of Gustavsson that sent the puck trickling just wide of the net and then following that up with a shot that rang the post to the goalie’s left.
Add in being absolutely robbed on a 2-on-1 by Calgary’s Jacob Markstrom in Friday night’s win, and the former University of Michigan star chosen third in this summer’s NHL draft had been more than holding his own and creating plenty of chances. One was bound to finally go in, and it happened in a key situation against the Wild for the 19-year-old, who became just the 15th teenager in CBJ history to score a goal.
“What a release,” head coach Pascal Vincent said. “Wow, that was quick. He hit the post in the second period. He had a few chances. It was just a matter of time. But I'm really happy for him. Well deserved.”
What might have impressed Vincent the most, though, was how Fantilli pointed to his defensive play as as a bigger point of pride. The rookie center also noted in his postgame media interview that a defensive lapse on his line’s part was a factor in the Wild’s tying goal minutes after his tally.
That understanding of the game is one reason why the Blue Jackets are so high on Fantilli.
“That’s quite the mature person that could say that, especially at that age,” Vincent said of Fantilli’s focus on his defensive play. “We reinforce that quite a bit. Our game with and without the puck is as important, one way or the other. We need to be all-in to have some success. This is a hard league to win hockey games, and Adam is all-in.
He wants to learn. He’s a mature young man. And he can play. So it’s really good to see him playing that way with the puck and without the puck.”
