TOTALLY RAD WIN
Radil lives the dream: He beats Arizona with his first career NHL goal
The Sharks’ Evander Kane flashed his speed before scoring past Arizona Coyotes goalie Adin Hill on a breakaway in a 5-3win Saturday. GLENDALE, ARIZ. >> Welcome to the NHL, kid. Grown up kid, that is.
Lukas Radil, a 28-year-old rookie playing in just his sixth NHL game, scored his first goal the way every kid imagines it whether they’re growing up in Canada, the U.S. or Europe. With 5:47 left in the third, the Czech native saved the Sharks from another soul-crushing loss by flipping a backhander into the top shelf, breaking a 3-3 tie after the Sharks coughed up a 3-0 lead to the Arizona Coyotes.
“I had a dream to play in the NHL and it’s a dream come true,” Radil said. “I scored a goal and the team (won), so it couldn’t be a better day.” THE SCORE
SHARKS 5, COYOTES 3
Up next: Devils at Sharks, Monday, 7:30 p.m., NBCCA
HERE’S WHAT WE LEARNED IN THE SHARKS
5-3 WIN >>
1. Radil traveled a long road to score his dramatic first goal.
Evander Kane raised his eyebrows in disbelief when he was told Radil’s age after the game.
“He’s 28?” Kane said. “I did not know that.”
Kane probably doesn’t know the rest of the backstory to the rags-to-riches tale that was punctuated in front of his eyes. Let’s indulge him.
Before Radil laced up the skates in his first NHL game on Nov. 23, he skated in 230 Czech Extraliga games over seven seasons before moving on to Moscow Spartak of the KHL, where he played another 164 games in a three-year span. Though the NHL continues to get younger and younger, Radil never gave up hope that he’d eventually cross the Atlantic and play in the world’s greatest hockey league, even after he’d passed the age when most European players get that call.
“I just had a dream to play in the NHL from (being) a young kid. I wanted to do it and I made it,” Radil said. “I hope it’s not the finish line.”
If there was a moment along the road that was more special than Saturday’s game-winning goal, it came in January when he learned that the Sharks were interested in signing him.
“It was my first offer,” Radil said. “I said to my agent, I just want to play in the NHL.