Minten scored the shootout winner in front of a capacity crowd at Bell Centre in Game 1 on Saturday.
Fraser Minten had no problem entering Bell Centre as the enemy.
The Toronto Maple Leafs star prospect scored a power-play goal and the shootout winner to help his club defeat the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 in Game 1 of the Rookie Prospects Series.
After securing the win, Minten celebrated with his arms to the side as he looked at the Canadiens' capacity crowd before his teammate joined him.
"it's awesome. It's my favorite rink I've ever played in the world like the fans are unbelievable here," Minten told Todd Crocker of MapleLeafs.com after the game. "You don't really feel your legs out there. It's easy to get up and kind of be the enemy out there, it's fun."
Minten played against the Canadiens before. He made his NHL debut against the big club last season after making the opening lineup right out of training camp. In some ways, you could say he was more prepared for this than any of his teammates.
But Bell Centre looked like a welcome change of pace from the last several years of games at a community rink in Traverse City, Michigan.
An NHL building with an NHL crowd.
After Minten scored his winner, the Montreal faithful let him hear it, not shy to flip him the bird as he approached the glass.
"They definitely make it hard on you, the fans are pretty involved," Toronto Marlies head coach John Gruden said of the atmosphere. "We saw it a little bit in Laval last year but it's not like this. Five thousand to 18,000 (fans) is quite the different but I thought our guys handled it well and it was good to see."
The rematch goes on Sunday at 1 p.m. After the game, the staff will bus back to Toronto with training camps set to open on Wednesday.
