It took 11 games but Nils Höglander just scored his first goal of the SHL season.

Höglander’s first shift of the game saw him drive to the net and be dragged down by a defender. It resulted in him being given a penalty shot. Instead of going with an extravagant move, he stuck with the classic wrist shot and scored his first goal of the season.

Höglander now has two points in his last three games and looked excellent in Tuesday’s game.

There are some games where he looks like the best player on the ice–Tuesday’s was one of those games. He was attacking the net with authority and moved his feet to get into open areas of the ice in the attacking zone.

There were multiple times where Höglander gained a step on the defencemen and his teammates were sending him in deep to gain possession of the puck. Late in the second period it looked like he has his second point of the game but the goal was called off due to the scorer being in the crease.

It was a lower ice time game for Höglander as he only played 11:35 on Tuesday. His team was penalized quite a bit, so the low minutes aren’t much of a concern as Höglander doesn’t kill penalties.

This was the third consecutive game that Höglander was on the power play unit. He was taken off for a handful of games but it’s great to see him back on the man advantage as he does a great job retrieving the puck and making good passes with the extra man.

Höglander’s next game is Thursday, let’s hope his first goal can spark his offence and he can get back to consistently being on the scoresheet like he did in the preseason and early on in the regular season.