In the San Jose Sharks match against the New York Rangers, Pavol Regenda helped the home team win 3:1 not only with the winning goal.
He also won two power plays for his team, one of them with effective provocations when Carson Soucy fouled him.
He started in the second attack and is gradually gaining more confidence. He spent 18 minutes and 55 seconds on the ice, which is his new career high.
Since his last call from the farm, he has been the team’s top scorer and has also given away the most points.
Unrelenting shooting appetite
“We’ve got scorers, but we’ve been missing a big power player in front of the goal,” coach Ryan Warsofsky said in December after Regenda made his Sharks debut.
At the time, this statement made sense, since the tall forward scored only once in his 19 previous NHL games, still in the Anaheim jersey.
In addition, before the mentioned debut for the “Sharks”, he had 3 goals in 19 duels in the current season at their farm.However, to everyone’s surprise, they also found a scorer in Regenda.
The native of Michalovsk has an excellent 9 points after 13 matches. With eight goals, he is already among the top 15 scorers among rookies.
In official NHL statistics, he is considered a rookie, as he still meets all the conditions for “rookie” status.
In the last match played, he shone with another eye-catching goal, when he hit the post with a backhand during a power play from the circle.
VIDEO: Clip of the match San Jose – Rangers (Goal by Regend from time 1:48)
“Sometimes it’s better to just close your eyes and shoot. Yesterday we had training and I said to myself, I’ll try to shoot it like this and it worked,” admitted Regenda after the match.
The leader not only in goals
He has been in the NHL continuously since the New Year’s Eve game, before which he was called up from the farm for the last time.
During this period, he is San Jose’s best scorer with 6 goals and also the leader in the number of points, giving away 25 of them.
STATISTICS: Regenda has been the team’s top scorer since his last call
He scored up to five of his points in 5-on-5 play, more than Macklin Celebrini and Collin Graf scored during that period in this game situation.
His importance to the team is underlined by the fact that he has the highest value in the plus-minus statistic (+4).
Even if he sometimes doesn’t score, he is on the ice when goals are scored and helps with good shielding or other valued work.
He took the first fight against Florida, and in the last game against the New York Rangers, he won the power play by provoking Sourcy into a tackle, after which he was ejected for roughing.
VIDEO: Rangers player fouled Regenda
San Jose currently has three forwards on the injured list who will likely return to action soon – Kiefer Sherwood, Ty Dellandrea and Phillipp Kurashev.
There is pressure on the team at this position, and general manager Mike Grier will have to make a trade if he does not want to lose someone via waivers without compensation.
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