[tvp2003]

Won his NHL debut, at Madison Square Garden. Not too many people can say that.

As far as entries to the NHL go, they don't come much more daunting than skating onto the ice at Madison Square Garden.

It's the World's Most Famous Arena -- just ask them -- and if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. So as Matiss Kivlenieks skated out of the tunnel and onto the ice for warmups ahead of his first NHL start Sunday night, there were certainly nerves bouncing through the goaltender's body.

Then, after skating out toward center ice, Kivlenieks turned around and was surprised by what he saw.

Absolutely no one.

Led by Cam Atkinson, the Blue Jackets stayed in the tunnel, giving the rookie netminder a traditional solo lap ahead of his debut. Kivlenieks burst into laughter and had a broad smile on his face as he skated back toward the net, then he was joined on the ice by his Blue Jackets teammates.

"It was pretty interesting," he said of his rookie lap. "I've seen it before, but I kind of forgot about it. I didn't expect it, honestly. Once I turned around, I saw everybody was still in the tunnel and I just started laughing."

Whether that was the moment broke the nerves for the 23-year-old Latvian goaltender is up for debate, but there's no question once he took the ice for the game, Kivlenieks was fantastic. He stopped 31 of 32 Rangers shots and got the win in the Blue Jackets' come-from-behind 2-1 victory.

Afterward, he could hardly process the moment.

"Honestly, I still can't believe it happened," he said. "I'll probably realize it tomorrow or something. It's always been a dream. It's obviously hard to even get a game, plus to win the first game you've ever played … but I think the guys played really good in front of me tonight, and at the end there were some really good blocks and (Oliver Bjorkstrand) scored a couple of huge goals. I'm just really happy I won the game."

https://www.nhl.com/bluejackets/news...ts/c-314168346

RIP.