LEWISTON – Felix Nyqvist knows how to make an immediate impact.
The 20-year-old Gothenberg, Sweden native in his second game with the L/A Fighting Spirit scored a hat trick as the Fighting Spirit completed the weekend sweep of the Skylands Kings with a 4-1 victory Sunday afternoon in front of 398 fans at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.
Nyqvist notched an assist in his first game with the Fighting Spirit in Saturday’s 3-1 victory.
He was known to put the puck in the net back in Sweden, where in 2015 he tallied 17 goals and 22 assists for Hovås HC in the J20 Division I league — the third level of under-20 juniors in Sweden. He also appeared in 22 games for the Hovås HC Division Two men’s league team, notching a goal and an assist.
“It feels great, it feels great, I wanted to score on my opportunities,” Nyqvist said. “I wanted to have the confidence (to score), it feels great.”
Fighting Spirit coach Rod Simmons couldn’t asked for a better start to the contest from his club. Kyle Secor and Nyqvist entered the offensive zone on a partial breakaway where Secor put the puck right on Nyqvist’s tape and Nyqvist put the puck home 31 seconds into the game.
“(Nyqvist) has a good release,” Simmons said. “We are working a lot in practice with our guys on shooting more. Last year, I don’t think we shot the puck enough. We are emphasizing on shooting as you can (like) Thomas Kuntz — he has a real good release. The next thing is we have to hit the net.”
The Fighting Spirit fired 44 shots on goal Sunday. In 2015-16, they had 1,746 shots in the 44-game regular season, which placed fifth in the league. The Jersey Shore Wildcats led the league, as they put 2,205 shots on goal.
Skylands settled into the game and had its chances on the power play, as they went on the man-advantage three times in the opening stanza. Clifford Ogle went to the box twice in the period for the Fighting Spirit.
His first offense was a two-minute minor for high-sticking. Nearly three minutes after coming out of the box, he went off at the 17:18 mark for fighting. He was the only willing combatant and the Kings went on their third power play of the period for the remainder of the first period.
Ogle was also given a game disqualification
“I love the penalty kill,” Simmons said. “When you are on the power play, people expect you to score with the extra man. The fact we were down a player, I love that. It’s a good way to get a team into the game early.”
The Kings started the second with 2:18 remaining in Ogle’s fighting major. With nine seconds left on the penalty, they got their first shot on net, but seven seconds later, Eric Vanderhoff’s shot squeaked past Fighting Spirit goalie Michael Errico 2:16 into the middle frame. Assists went to Davids Rozitis and Jan Broz.
The soon to be 19-year-old wanted that goal back.
“I was screened on the play,” Errico said. “It just hit underneath my pad and (Vanderhoff) tapped it in.”
He knew he just had to move on and worry about the next shot.
Nyqvist scored his second goal of the game by coming down the right wing and snapping the puck past Evan Barghout with 6:08 remaining in the second period. Assists went to Clayton Thomas and Patrick Romano.
“I know the (near) post. I always shoot above pad, that’s where I like to shoot it,” Nyqvist said.
Thomas added the an insurance marker when the defenseman just dumped the puck on goal and caught Barghout off-guard for the 3-1 lead 6:47 into the period.
Nyqvist added the hat trick goal with 2:12 remaining in the contest. Walker Hamilton and Matt Siegel were credited with the assists.
The Fighting Spirit were 1-for-4 on the man advantage while Skylands went 1-for-7.
Barhout made 40 saves in the losing effort while Errico recorded his first victory in a Fighting Spirit sweater.
“It’s a good first impression, winning,” Errico said. “You just have to build from there.”
The Fighting Spirit head to Massachusetts next weekend to take on the Northeast Generals on Friday and the East Coast Minutemen on Saturday.
nfournier@sunjournal.com
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