THE National Hockey League (NHL) team of Filipino American forward Nicholas “Nick” Robertson prevailed against his brother’s team at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on Thursday (Friday in Manila).
Filipino American NHL player Nicholas Robertson. PHOTO FROM TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
Nick’s Toronto Maple Leafs defeated his older brother Jason’s Dallas Stars in overtime, 3-2, with Nick scoring two goals, including the game-winner in overtime.
The Leafs trailed 1-0 after a goal by Dallas forward Luke Glendening but tied the score in the second period with a goal by Alexander Kerfoot. The younger Robertson scored in the third but the Stars equalized with a controversial goal by Tyler Seguin.
At the 3:46 mark in overtime, Morgan Rielly passed the puck to Robertson who passed it back to Auston Matthews who, in turn, gave it back to Robertson for the game winning goal.
For Matthews, who won three major NHL awards last season, this was the 200th assist of his career.
Leafs goaltender Ilya Samsonov stopped 26 of 28 shots for a .929 save percentage.
Jason, who recently signed a contract extension with Dallas, did not tally any points.
The brothers’ Filipino mother, Mercedes, was present during the game and in his postgame interview with Canadian sports channel Sportsnet, Nick called his mother his “rock.”
“She’s my rock, she’s the reason why I’m here,” he said. “To have a night like this, it’s something you dream of. I definitely put in the work, she’s put in more work than I have to get me to this point.”
In the postgame scrum, the 21-year-old said he dreamed of playing in the NHL and scoring the winning goal.
“I was just excited,” he told reporters. “You kind of dream of this stuff, to score in overtime in the NHL. Now for me, it’s just keep going, keep fighting and earning every day.”
In addition, the younger Robertson said people would be crazy if he had scored the winning overtime goal.
“A week ago if someone said I would get the OT winner, I’d say you were crazy. You never know what can happen in this industry,” he added.
Before the game, Jason thought it was his brother’s year to shine in the NHL.
“With the type of player he is, he’s going to show them. It’s his third year pro, he has some experience and over the summer he keeps pushing, pushing to the next step. I think it’s his year,” Jason told reporters.
Nick was also named the first star of the game, followed by forward Michael Bunting (2 assists) and Dallas goaltender Scott Wedgewood (.930 save percentage; stopped 40 of 43 shots). In addition, he was the Leafs Star of the Game.
The Stars started the season by winning their first three games before running into Toronto.
The Leafs will now embark on a road trip that will begin in Winnipeg on Saturday. They will meet the Stars again in the American Airlines Center in Dallas on December 7.
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