Photo credit: dynamo.ru

With leading scorer Alex Ovechkin out sick with bronchitis, Dynamo Moscow needed someone to pick up the slack against rival Dinamo Riga on Monday. That person was Nicklas Backstrom.

With three seconds left in the first period, Backstrom scored his first career KHL goal, deflecting Filip Novak’s shot past Dinamo goaltender Mikael Tellqvist while on the power play.

Video below.

Nice hand/eye coordination.

In 17:08 of ice time, Nicky (still wearing Gretzky’s #99) had one shot, the aforementioned goal, and won a ridonkulous 18 of 23 face-offs. He got in a little bit of a scuffle too.

No hug! Punch!

Dynamo will next play on Friday against Spartak. Until then, enjoy a few more pictures of Backstrom from today’s game via dynamo.ru.