STEELHEADS POWER RANKINGS: Top 5 Fastest Goals to start a game

This is the weekly edition of Idaho Steelheads Power Rankings, where we at IdahoSteelheads.com will see where the Steelheads and their players rank among the best of the best in the ECHL.

Rob Linsmayer got the scoring going pretty early on Saturday night, but where does it rank among Idaho’s fastest goals in history? Let’s find out!

5) Mark Bomersback; 16 seconds

Mark Bomersback played two 20-goal seasons in Idaho, and he scored the fifth fastest goal to start a game in Steelheads history during the 2007-08 campaign. Bomersback opened the scoring just 16 seconds into an eventual 4-3 shootout loss in Fresno, beating goaltender Jake Moreland. It was Bomersback’s 17th goal of the season and part of a four-game goal-scoring streak to finish the season. Only five of his 20 goals that year came in the first period. Bomersback ranks 10th on the Steelheads’ all-time goal scoring list with 42.

4) Greg Rallo; 14 seconds

The Steelheads thumped the Utah Grizzlies on January 24, 2007, a 5-0 win at Maverik Center. Greg Rallo got the Steelheads started right away, beating Sean Fields just 14 seconds into the game to kick-off a Steelheads assault of five goals in 26 minutes that chased the Grizzlies’ goaltender from the game. It was a big night for Rallo, who put up three points on the evening with what was the fifth game of a seven game points streak. It was just the second time that season that Rallo had scored first for Idaho. Rallo’s would score the game-winner a few months later to defeat the Dayton Bombers in Game 5 and win the Steelheads’ second Kelly Cup.

3) Adrian Foster; 11 seconds

Adrian Foster was a point per game player in his 26 game stint in Idaho during the 2012-13 season. The former first-round draft pick of the New Jersey Devils scored 11 seconds into Idaho’s contest with the Stockton Thunder on November 18, 2012, netting his sixth goal of 11 he would score that season. There a link between that goal, at the time the second-fastest in Steelheads history, and the current team. Rob Linsmayer’s nine-second goal on Saturday night was started by a neutral zone stretch pass by Corbin Baldwin. Who started the play on Foster’s goal? It was Steelheads defenseman Gord Baldwin.

2) Jan Kopecky; 9 seconds

Towards the end of Idaho’s first season in the ECHL, Jan Kopecky set a record that would hold up for almost 12 years. On March 12, 2004, Kopecky beat Long Beach goaltender David Burleigh just nine seconds into the game at CenturyLink Arena, a game Idaho would win 5-1. Kopecky scored 24 goals and 54 points that season, his only professional season in North America.

1) Rob Linsmayer; 9 seconds

Like Kopecky, Linsmayer matched the record for fastest goal to start a game in Steelheads history on home ice, beating Tulsa’s Kevin Carr just nine seconds into Saturday night’s contest. Linsmayer cut between the Oiler defense to chase down a puck chipped through the neutral zone by Jefferson Dahl, going in on a breakaway to give the Steelheads a 1-0 lead in an eventual 4-2 loss. It was Linsmayer’s fastest goal to start a game since February 14, 2014 when he scored 30 seconds into a game against Bakersfield. His fastest before that still involved the Steelheads, but it was when Linsmayer was a member of the San Francisco Bulls and opened the scoring 1:03 into the game against Idaho on November 15th of that same season.