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More on the goal-scoring phenom

Print | Comments () Posted by Chad Finn, Globe Staff October 15, 2009 11:18 AM

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It's a goal you have to see -- again and again -- to believe.

Words struggle to do it justice, but here's the quick synopsis if you somehow have not seen it already.

The player, breaking in on the goalie in a shootout-style format, suddenly does a half-spin in between the faceoff circles, lifts the puck onto his stick, and with a lacrosse-style backhand, flips it airborne and stick-side past the frozen goalie.

It would be a highlight for a hockey player of any age. But the scorer here, Oliver Wahlstrom of Cumberland, Maine, happens to be just 9 years old.

Based on the goal alone, it's tempting to describe him as a prodigy -- he is the youngest player on a team made up of mostly 12-year-olds in the Portland Junior Pirates program.

What is certain is that he has excellent hockey bloodlines.

His father, Joakim Wahlstrom, played professional hockey in Sweden for seven years, skated in two World Junior Championships, and spent the 1988-89 season playing for the University of Maine. He also briefly played soccer and football for the Black Bears.

Joakim Wahlstrom is currently the general manager for the Portland Junior Pirates program as well as the Maine Hockey Group.

And undoubtedly a very proud dad as well.