Rickard Rakell will go down in the history books.
Not only did the 21-year-old center score the overtime winner against the Winnipeg Jets in a Game 3 victory for the Anaheim Ducks on Monday, silencing a crowd and a city that hadn’t hosted a Stanley Cup playoff game in 19 years, he became the youngest player in franchise history to score an OT playoff goal, as per the league.
At 21 years, 350 days, @RickyRakell93 became the youngest player in @AnaheimDucks history to score a playoff OT goal. pic.twitter.com/QVXSWlpfrs
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) April 21, 2015
Meanwhile, the Jets once again felt the pain of defeat. On home ice, too, with a crowd that was loud and clad almost completely in white.
Three times in this series, the Jets have had the lead in the third period. Three times, they’ve lost. They’re now facing elimination and a possible sweep.
“Yeah, it’s hard. It’ just more of the same. We lead the whole damn series and we’re 0-3. That’s the way it goes. That’s hockey. We just have to find a way to get that first one,” Jets forward Blake Wheeler told the Winnipeg Sun.
“Don’t allow them to score. If we had a better answer, it would probably be 3-0 right now. You’ve got to win four games. We’ve won four in a row before. The first one’s going to be the hardest one, apparently. So just lick our wounds tonight. It’s going to hurt obviously, and the sun’s going to rise tomorrow and we have to refocus for Game 4.”