First NHL goal for Rangers' Matthew Robertson is 'every kid's dream'

When the Rangers finally let reporters into their locker room after their  4-3 win over the  Canadiens  on Saturday night in Montreal, Matthew Robertson still had that wide-eyed, I-can’t-believe-that-just-happened look.

He had scored a goal, a huge one, in the third period to put the Rangers ahead 3-2. It was his first NHL goal and came in his fifth season of professional hockey, the first four of which were spent almost entirely in the minor leagues. And he was still processing it.

“I feel like it hasn’t really sunk in yet,’’ he said, smiling.

“It means everything,’’ the 6-4, 210-pound Robertson added, still smiling. “It’s something you dreamed of doing, from a little kid, scoring in the NHL. I mean, it’s every kid’s dream, playing hockey. And for it to finally come true is huge. And to get the ‘W’ and the win for the boys is even bigger.’’

It appeared for a while that Robertson’s goal, scored at 4:11 of the third period, would be the winner for the Rangers, who had fallen behind 2-0 by the 3:42 mark of the first period before rallying.

Artemi Panarin, who had passed the puck to Robertson for his one-timer that got through traffic and beat goalie Sam Montembeault, scored 1:40 later to make it 4-2. Former Islander Noah Dobson then scored to bring the Canadiens within 4-3, making Panarin’s goal the winner, not Robertson’s.

But that mattered little to Robertson, 24, a second-round draft pick in 2019 who played 250 games in the AHL for the Rangers’ Hartford farm team before finally making his NHL debut, playing the last two games of last season.

He made the team out of training camp this year as the seventh defenseman, and when Carson Soucy got hurt    in Pittsburgh on Oct. 11,   he stepped into the lineup for the last four games. He didn’t look at all out of place, playing an average of 17 minutes and 17 seconds on a second defense pair with partner Will Borgen.

Now, even with Soucy likely to come off injured reserve and return to the lineup  Monday when the Rangers host the Minnesota Wild,  it’s very possible, and perhaps even likely, that Robertson will stay in the lineup.

Coach Mike Sullivan has been impressed by Robertson, and he really liked how he responded after making an early mistake that created the two-on-one break that led to Montreal’s first goal.

“As a young player, sometimes that can affect a guy, right? And what I loved about it is just his response,’’ Sullivan said. “I thought, just watching him play the rest of the game, he was competing hard. It didn’t affect his confidence or his swagger, [and] the fact that he reacted the way he reacted, I think, just speaks to his maturity.’’

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.