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Family Affair: Samoskevich Celebrates Milestone with Florida Panthers

Mackie Samoskevich had been looking forward to this Florida Panthers road trip.
He has never been to Finland, so, that’s cool.
Only he was really excited to get to New York.
The Panthers were going to play at Madison Square Garden, a place he had only been on the ice once before.
Samoskevich, who grew up about 80 miles away from New York City in Newtown, Conn., was on a mites team that got to play on the MSG ice during an intermission.
“I was playing goal,’’ Samoskevich said with a laugh. “Got lit up.’’
Thursday night, in front of a large gathering of friends and family, Samoskevich was able to skate out onto the ice at the ‘World’s Most Famous Arena’ for the first time as a big leaguer.
He wisely left the goaltending to Sergei Bobrovsky.
Saturday night, Samoskevich got a second game in the New York area — this one out on Long Island.
If his first NHL game at Madison Square Garden was memorable, well, he had something bigger in store against the Islanders.
