“I came in before the game and I told him, I was thinking about it all day – he had to get one tonight,” Fantilli said. “He was like, ‘Yeah, I’m actually feeling it too.’ As soon as he tucked it in, I was pumped behind the net. I was pointing at the net, making sure someone picked (the puck) up.
“I’m pumped for him. You never forget your first goal. I walked in the dry stall (after the game) and he said, ‘I’m not sleeping tonight.’ I was like, ‘I didn’t either. You’re gonna remember it forever.’”
The man of the hour confirmed it with a thousand-watt smile on his face and a donkey hat in his locker stall.
“It feels awesome,” Pyyhtia said. “First goal, you’ll remember that all your life. I felt that (I would score) too in the morning, and (Fantilli) said, ‘I feel you can score one today.’ I was like, ‘I feel it too.’ That was a funny moment.”
The funny thing is that Pyyhtia was a pretty good goal scorer in his native Finland. The fourth-round pick in the 2020 draft had 21 goals in 2021-22 with TPS in his home country, but he had found paydirt hard to come by at the start of his NHL career despite drawing rave reviews from coaches and teammates alike for his solid play all over the ice.
It helped that he’s started to shoot the puck more in the last two games. After zero shots on goal in the Jackets’ first six games this season, he had three on Saturday night in Nashville – including nearly winning the game late in regulation – and two more Monday night.
And, of course, one that went in.
“Everyone told me, ‘Shoot more, shoot more. You have a good shot,’” he said. “Now I shoot more, and now (the goal) came. I probably need to shoot more.”
2. It was a memorable night for his whole line as well.
Head coach Dean Evason made a switcheroo with the top two trios Monday night, reuniting the “Monahanov” line of Yegor Chinakhov, Sean Monahan and Kirill Marchenko and slotting Cole Sillinger with Fantilli and Pyyhtia.
On a night when the Blue Jackets scored six goals for the fourth time in eight games, it paid off. Monahan had a pair of goals, including one on the power play to get things started in the opening minutes, and every member of the Sillinger-Fantilli-Pyyhtia line scored.
For Sillinger and Fantilli, there was an immediate connection. The two played just over 11 minutes together at 5-on-5 a season ago and were on a line together Monday for the first time this season, but the production quickly clicked as both Fantilli and Sillinger tallied in the first period.