You have to feel good for rookie Joey Hishon, who scored his first NHL goal -- the game winner -- Tuesday in the Avalanche's 3-2 victory against Nashville.

Hopefully he can still healthy and there will be plenty more goals to come.

Hishon, 23, has had a rough time since the Avalanche made him their first-round pick (17th overall) in the 2010 NHL Draft. He sustained a head injury on a hit by Kootenay defenseman Brayden McNabb (now with Los Angeles) during the 2011 Memorial Cup tournament while playing for Owen Sound and didn't play for 22 months while experiencing post-concussion symptoms. McNabb was given a one-game suspension.

Hishon, listed as 5-feet-10 and 170 pounds, missed the entire 2011-12 season and was limited to nine games in 2012-13 after absorbing another hit while with the Lake Erie Monsters in the AHL. He made his NHL debut during last season's first-round playoff series with Minnesota and had an assist in three games.

Pumped for my boy @jhish18 guy has been through a lot and WOW is he a player!!!!! #silky #cheesyricepilaf

— Calvin Pickard (@cpickard1) April 8, 2015

Hishon got off to a slow start with Lake Erie this season and the Avalanche didn't recall him until March 2; he was leading the Monsters in scoring with 32 points (14 goals, 18 assists) in 50 games. He lost another six games to elbow and neck injuries after a collision in Avalanche practice.

Coach Patrick Roy has been giving Hishon some power-play time, and moved him from the fourth line to the third Tuesday with Cody McLeod and Marc-Andre Cliche when Dennis Everberg went down with a shoulder injury in the second period that likely has ended his season with two games remaining.

Goal No. 1 for Hishon came in his 11th regular-season NHL game against a Predators team that would have taken over first place in the Central Division with a win. They certainly pressured goalie Semyon Varlamov, who had 40 saves.

Cliche forced Predators defenseman Roman Josi into a turnover and Hishon did the rest. He weaved his way into the Nashville end and took a hard wrist shot that beat goalie Pekka Rinne to the stick side at 7:06 of the third period to break a 2-2 tie.

"It was a great play by Clicher to force the play to me," said Hishon, who played 10:50 and won all six of his faceoffs. "It was a really good neutral zone forecheck to turn that puck over. I was lucky enough to take it over the blue line and to get a shot on net and was lucky enough that it went in.

"It was amazing. I had a lot of adrenaline running through my veins, so it was good to get that first one. To get it in a win is even bigger. I couldn’t stop smiling after. There were 11, 12 minutes left in the game, so I had to try and focus on my breathing and come back down to earth.

"I'm going to have to build on that. It's the best league in the world, so you can't take anything for granted. Tomorrow's another day and I'm going to keep working hard and build on that for the next two games."

While Hishon was exchanging the usual post-goal glove bumps with teammates while skating beside the bench, Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog celebrated by spraying him with water.

"It's awesome to see a guy like that who's been through a few injuries and through a tough time," Landeskog said. "You can tell that he never gave up, he always wanted to develop and keep going. I think he's shown a lot these last few weeks. We know he has put a lot of hard work in. I think for every game he plays, he is getting more and more comfortable, making plays out there and tonight a great goal."

Ryan O'Reilly scored a second-period goal to give the Avalanche a 2-1 lead nine seconds after Jarome Iginla netted his 27th of the season, matching a franchise record for the two fastest goals.

O'Reilly, who has seven goals and eight assists in the past 12 games, said Hishon's goal "was a beauty, one of the nicest first goals I've ever seen."

Roy said he's curious to see how Hishon plays in the final two games.

"I thought he had a great game," Roy said. "He was solid on faceoffs. He took advantage of the situation when Dennis got hurt and I thought he played really well. His play defensively certainly encouraged me a lot to play him out there, and I trust him. He even had some faceoffs in our own zone. I was very comfortable.

"I want to see the next two games, I want to see him play a bigger role now since Dennis is probably finished for the season. I'd like to see him play more minutes and see how he's going to do. As of right now, I'm happy with what I've seen and I just want to see him continue to play and see him play more minutes."

The Avalanche didn't practice Wednesday. They finish the season with games against Winnipeg on Thursday and Chicago on Saturday.



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