In his 15th game of the season, he finally did it.
Alex Galchenyuk scored a goal.
Galchenyuk scored the Penguins' first goal of the 3-2 win over the Flames, a power play tally 11:48 into the first period to tie the game. After Flames goaltender David Rittich stopped the initial shot from Dominik Kahun, Galchenyuk snapped the rebound five-hole:
"It's been awhile," Galchenyuk said with a little laugh. "When it crossed the goal line it was really emotional, it was a great feeling, even better that we got the win of course."
Looking at Matt Sunday's picture just after the goal, it almost looks like it took a few seconds for the reality to set in:
After a brief hesitation, Galchenyuk celebrated accordingly.
Galchenyuk said the goal was a weight off of his shoulders, one that was perhaps a little heavier because of the added pressure of being on a new team.
"Every season you kind of go through slumps," Galchenyuk said. "Last year I went like 17 games. This year I think was harder because you want to get the first one with the new team, I'm happy to get it over with now."
Galchenyuk's teammates were thrilled to see him finally rewarded for the work he's been putting in this season.
"It was awesome," Jared McCann said. "He's been working his bag off. Sometimes things just don't go your way, and every guy in the league has gone through it. He handled it in a professional way, he kept grinding every single night. He's been creating a lot of chances for us, it was good to finally see him get a goal."
After each win, the team gives out a firefighter helmet to the most valuable player, as decided by the previous win's recipient. On this night, even after Jake Guentzel's overtime winner, the helmet sat in Galchenyuk's stall, given to him by Tristan Jarry. The Penguins shared this video of Jarry passing the helmet along to Galchenyuk:
Fireman Chuck, FTW. pic.twitter.com/elgj7wgNR3
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) November 26, 2019
"It's awesome to see the excitement that he had when he scored," said Jarry. "How much he's been helping us this year, it's been huge. It's great for him to get one."
After Galchenyuk spoke to reporters, he sat back down in his stall and gave a big sigh, and said to himself, "Oh, that felt good."
With that weight off of Galchenyuk's shoulders, he probably won't have to wait another 15 games to get his second.
