That it came in his hometown of Toronto and with an immeasurable number of friends and family members in attendance only added to the accomplishment, and his mother, Julia, was the first to throw her hat on the ice after his third goal.
Fantilli was more than happy postgame as he posed with three pucks to celebrate, but he also kept an eye on his development when asked if this performance would give him more confidence going forward.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m just trying to keep chipping away at becoming a better player every day, and I’m really grateful to the players that I’ve been able to watch up until this point and how much they’ve been able to help me to become the centerman that I want to be. Obviously I’m not there yet, and I’m gonna keep working toward that, but I’m really grateful to the people that helped me this season and last.”
Fantilli’s impact on the ice has consistently grown as the season has gone on, and he’s now up to a career-high 14 goals. In the seven-plus games since he’s taken over as the team’s No. 1 center following Sean Monahan’s injury, Fantilli has six goals and three assists.
Perhaps more importantly, he’s more than held his own against top opposition, including on this night when he helped limit Toronto star Auston Matthews.
“Clearly, as you’ve seen tonight, he has an offensive game that is fantastic, but you have to keep the puck out of the net as well,” head coach Dean Evason said. “If he’s not committed to do that, he doesn’t get the looks he’s getting. He was sound tonight, played against one of the best players in the world the majority of the night, and did a really good job not only offensively but defensively as well.”
Fantilli (20 years old) and Luca Del Bel Belluz (21) were the top two CBJ centers against the Maple Leafs with Cole Sillinger out with an upper-body injury, and they’ve known each other since they were kids (more on that in a moment). With that in mind, Del Bel Belluz certainly wasn’t surprised to see his longtime friend take over in their hometown.
“Since we were kids, he’s always one been of the best players on the ice, and tonight, he was the best player on the ice,” Del Bel Belluz said. “It’s definitely special to see.”
2. Meanwhile, Del Bel Belluz also had a night he’ll never forget.
Fantilli and Del Bel Belluz essentially grew up together in Toronto’s northern suburbs, skating with one another as they grew up in the city’s intense hockey scene, going to school together for a couple of years and even playing AAA hockey on a notable Toronto Red Wings U-16 team in 2018-19.
So as excited as Del Bel Belluz was for Fantilli’s night, Fantilli felt the exact same way for his longtime friend. It was Del Bel Belluz’s first NHL game in the arena he grew up watching hockey in, and he had a goal and an assist to celebrate in front of 50-plus friends and family.
“We’ve been buddies for a long time,” Fantilli said. “I was really happy for him to be able to get those two points tonight and score his goal here. He had a ton of people here as well. He’s a great kid, a great friend, a great teammate, so it’s really great to see him perform like that tonight.”
Del Bel Belluz has already put together an impressive resume at the top level, becoming the first CBJ player ever to score in his first two NHL games and just the second to have a three-game point streak to open his career. But game No. 8 will forever be memorable because it came against the team he cheered for as a kid.
“It’s special,” he said. “Obviously with a lot of people in the crowd supporting me, it’s good to give them (a goal), at least something they remember from this game. It was just super fun.”
There was a particular irony in his first point of the night, the assist, as one of the players he grew up idolizing while watching the Leafs was James van Riemsdyk; his cross-crease feed to the longtime NHLer to slam home gave the Blue Jackets a 2-0 lead in the second period.
Del Bel Belluz then made it 4-1 himself early in the third period. He outraced the Maple Leafs down the ice to prevent an icing at the end of a long shift, then battled a handful of Toronto players behind the net with Mikael Pyyhtia. That forecheck paid off, as Del Bel Belluz ended up with the puck on his stick and stuffed it past goalie Dennis Hildeby at the post.