Max Pacioretty fulfills son’s request, scores goal Sunday — VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS
Max Pacioretty said his four young sons — Lorenzo, Maximus, James and Michael — were ready for their first playoff game at T-Mobile Arena as soon as they got up at 6:30 a.m. Sunday.
Then one of them (Pacioretty didn’t specify which) made an unusual request.
“First time in my career my son asked me to score a goal,” said the Golden Knights winger.
Dad delivered. Pacioretty scored 7:44 into the Knights’ 6-3 win in Game 3 of their first-round series against the San Jose Sharks, giving his family plenty to celebrate.
“That’s why we play the game,” Pacioretty said Sunday. “You look at Tiger (Woods on Sunday at the Masters), look at him win and the first thing he does is go to his family. Kind of that feeling for us tonight to be able to go home, play in front of our friends and families.”
It’s not the first milestone moment the Pacioretty family has had this season. The 30-year-old changed teams for the first time in his career when he joined the Knights via trade in September. Lorenzo, then 4 years old, asked his dad to point out his new team on his NHL logo bedsheets but Pacioretty couldn’t because they were made before the Knights joined the league.
Then Michael arrived in January, and the team rushed back from a game in Anaheim to make sure Pacioretty could be with his wife Katia at the hospital.
Now the whole family is involved in the goal-scoring game, though Pacioretty said his son “can’t abuse that power” and ask for a tally every night. Turns out, he can’t ask for the puck from dad’s first home playoff goal with the Knights either.
“I saved the puck, but he didn’t get it,” Pacioretty said.
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Contact reporter Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.