Years from now when Jeremy Swayman tells the story of his first NHL point, it won’t take much embellishment to make it sound pretty exciting.
The Bruins goalie passed the puck to Brad Marchand, who started a rush that led to the game-tying goal late in the third period of a Boston victory against the defending Eastern Conference champions that put his team into first place.
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All of that is true.
Swayman can leave out the fact that he was behind the net with no Florida players near him. With the Bruins trailing by a goal on a power play, the Panthers had dumped the puck into the Boston zone.
Swayman skated out to play the puck and fed it about eight feet to Marchand in the circle to the goalie’s right. The Bruins’ captain skated all the way down the ice to the left-wing boards where he fed Trent Frederic, who ripped a hard shot past Sergei Bobrovsky with 4:22 remaining in the game to make it 3-3.
Swayman, who has admitted he wants to score a goalie goal someday, had no assists at any significant level before this. Not for the Sioux Falls Stampede in juniors. Not in three seasons at the University of Maine or in the AHL for Providence.
He didn’t realize he’d been credited with his first career assist until he heard the Panthers’ P.A. announce it.
“I didn’t know. I didn’t watch the whole play happen,” he said. “I heard it on the loud speaker. … Pretty cool first point. But I’m more excited about the two points.”
