Rhett Rakshani was the story of the Malmö Redhawks 4-3 victory over the Stavanger Oilers, as he opened the scoring at the 5-second mark and then scored the game-winning goal with just 19 seconds to play - the last goal coming after his team had just blown a two-goal lead in the last two minutes.
Malmö couldn’t have started much quicker, as the puck squibbed into the Oilers zone off the opening faceoff and Rakshanim fired a wrister from the high slot that beat Henrik Holm to the glove side - the fastest goal ever from the start of a CHL game. Holm was perfect for the next 45 minutes, however, making 40 saves in the game. At the other end, Stavanger found it difficult to generate offensive chances, but Josh Soares managed to tie the game with 1:17 left in the second period.
The Redhawks seemed to take control in the third period and scored twice - Max Görtz with a one-timer from the slot and then Andy Miele making a nice move to beat a defenceman and the goalie - to lead 3-1 with under 10 minutes to play. With his second of the game, Soares cut the lead in half on the backhand with exactly two minutes to go, and then, amazingly, Kristian Forsberg tied it with 1:01 to go by poking in a loose puck after a wraparound attempt.
It looked like the Redhawks had once again blown a multi-goal lead and the game would head to overtime. Rakshani had other ideas, though, streaking down the left side and firing a wrister top shelf with 19 seconds to play.
“We were looking good up 3-1 and we made a couple of mistakes and they tied it. We got a goal at the end to win it - I would say we played well for about 56 minutes. It was a fun, high-paced game.”Peter Andersson, head coach, Malmö Redhawks