The Ottawa Senators and Colorado Avalanche kicked off the NHL’s Global Series today in Stockholm, Sweden. The contest featured some of hockey’s elite Swedish stars including Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog and Senators captain Erik Karlsson. Ottawa ultimately pulled away with a 4-3 overtime victory on a Mark Stone one-timer.
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Both Swedish players have established themselves as heroes in their home country, but one was able to come away with a franchise record today. After recording an assist on Stone’s winner, Karlsson tied former Sens defenceman Filip Kuba for the most assists in the first 15 games of the season in franchise history with 14. While the number’s impressive, it’s worth noting that Karlsson achieved the feat in just ten games, after he was forced to miss the first five due to offseason surgery.
The 27-year-old also managed to reach another milestone in the process. With his two points, he passed Roman Hamrlik and tied Sandis Ozolinsh for the fifth most career multi-point games by a European born defenceman with 117.
Not a bad day for the Landsbro native.
Karlsson will have the opportunity to surpass Ozolinsh when the Senators take on the Avs’ in game two of the global series tomorrow at 1:00 PM Eastern Time. Despite the lost time, he is eighth in the league in assists.
We can’t say we’re particularly surprised.
(H/T StatsCentre)
