Anaheim defender Urho Vaakanainen managed to score in the 108th NHL game of his career. Twice before, the goal he scored has been marked with another player’s name.
Anaheim Ducks Urho Vaakanainen, 25, scored the first goal of his NHL career in a very special way against the Dallas Stars. Anaheim lost to Dallas in overtime 3–4.
Vaakanainen was responsible for Anaheim’s 1-1 equalizing goal when he shot the puck from the minus corner Dallas goalkeeper by Jake Oettinger to the skate, from which the puck bounced into the goal.
The defenseman from Joensuu had to wait a long time for his first goal, as Vaakanainen, who was booked for the NHL in 2017, has already played 108 NHL games in his career. On a couple of occasions, the first goal of the NHL career has been close, but twice another player has been marked as the goal scorer later.
In January 2022, Vaakanainen, who represented the Boston Bruins, was marked as the scorer in the match against Montreal for a long time, but in the end the hit was changed to the one in front of the goal by Curtis Lazar to names.
In November 2023, Vaakanainen shot the puck at the Nashville keeper Juuse Saros behind, and the Joensuu native had time to air the opening goal of his NHL career. But once again the goal was taken away from Vaakanainen after the match, because Adam Henrique was seen to direct the shot into the goal.
Vaakanainen has also experienced this season that his opening goal was rejected as offside. That’s what happened in the game against St. Louis in November.
Although the puck ended up in the goal in a special way in the Dallas match, this time the goal seems to remain in Vaakanainen’s name.
Vaakanainen moved to Anaheim from Boston in the 2021–22 season. This season, he has been able to play a much bigger role in Anaheim than in previous years and has already played in 40 matches.
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