Pittsburgh Penguins forward Rickard Rakell has been named the NHL’s First Star for the week of March 30, it was announced today.
Rakell accumulated seven goals and eight points in five games this past week, leading the Penguins to four wins in their push for the playoffs. Rakell’s seven goals ranked first in the NHL last week, while his eight points were tied with teammate Sidney Crosby for second in the league behind only Jack Hughes’ nine. The Swedish forward is currently riding a five-game goal-scoring streak (7G) and an eight-game point streak (10G-3A-13PTS), both marking the longest active such streaks in the league.
Rakell scored seven of the Penguins’ 30 goals over the past five games, the most the team has scored in a five-game span since 1995-96 (30G from March 16-26, 1996). Pittsburgh has scored 277 goals this season, ranking second in the league behind only the first-place Colorado Avalanche (284).
Rakell has 11 goals over his last 10 games, lighting the lamp in eight of those contests with three multi-goal games in that span. He is the first Penguin to score 11 goals in a 10-game stretch since Evgeni Malkin did so in 2017-18. Stretching back further, Rakell has points in 16 of his last 17 games played, recording a career-long eight-game point streak from March 7-21 in addition to his active seven-game streak.
Rakell, who hit the 20-goal plateau for the seventh time in his career on Tuesday, has been on a tear since the calendar flipped to March. He has tallied 14 goals and 24 points in 20 games since March 1 and leads all players across the league in goals in that span.
