Borna Rendulic of the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche has done something no Croatia-born athlete has ever done before: Score a goal in the NHL. That’s right, Borna is the first ever Croatia-born and trained player to not only play, but also score in the NHL.
The 22-year-old was born in Zagreb and made his professional hockey debut in the 2006-07 season with KHL Medvescak at the age of 15.
From there, Rendulic played with teams throughout Finland before arriving in the States to join the Avalanche and made his NHL debut on Dec. 9.
Rendulic had since been a regular with the Avs and scored his first goal on Dec. 31 in a game against the Philadelphia Flyers.
“It’s a really good feeling [to score the goal]. Hopefully I’m not the last Croatian who’s going to score, but it’s a great honor,” Rendulic said in an interview with ColoradoAvalanche.com.
“At my age, I’m still a young player. I never thought I was going to be here this year. First, I thought ‘I’m going to come here; it’s going to take a while to get used to it,’ but now I’ve gotten the chance, and in just four games I scored a goal. I can’t describe it, just hands in the air. The moment was so cool. Twenty thousand people cheering, it was really unbelievable.”
Rendulic was recently ready to make a trip to Tampa to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in January, but suffered a broken leg in the game against the Florida Panthers
one day earlier. CroatianSports.com will schedule an interview when he returns to the line up as he is unavailable for interviews while injured.
@anon
It is tough, I live in a little community with no Croatian school, the nearest Croatian church is 1.5 hours, and my dad is away on business often. I have tons of “learn to speak croatian” disks, but they only take you so far.
@tt toronto
I am from Ontario, nearest major city is London. My dad was born in Gospic, and my mom is German born in Munich
@zija
which part of canada are you from?
are both your parents Croatian? If so what part?
@Zija………..instead of making up some lies about how you would die for the country, how about doing something much easier and just learning the language. That way, in case you do die for the country, at least you will understand what you are dying for.
@ Zija
Not for Ziva, but for yourself start to learn the language today. It empowers you.
I’m a 17 year old Canadian born Croatian who will be representing the Croatian national team in inline hockey, and for the ice hockey team next year. I cannot speak the language very well so according to Ziva I must not be a true Croat!! But i would die for the Grb and will show that when I represent my country
Kordic wasn’t half native, either.
He just looked like he may have been.
@starcevic
people are idiots on this site, just posting any crap they see on the internet
Cuvalos wife was Irish not native.
Looking forward to asking him the same question. He mentioned watching him a lot as a kid, but haven’t heard anything as of now if they’re close since Sakic is the VP of hockey for the Avs. Rendulic should be back in 8-10 weeks, so plenty of time to get something ready for him. Feel free to suggest questions you’d like me to ask him.
Was gonna mention the Kordic bros myself!
Wonder how big of an influence was Sakic in getting this kid to Colorado?
This would be a nice interview. Hopefully, the kid recovers from injury soon.
Where the hell is Cico? I hope he’s ok.
Another fake account??? Really???
Isn’t alcoholism a big problem with the native population? Which makes me wonder if Cico is a native.
John Kordic was half native, and ended up dead.
George Cuvalo’s kids were half native as well, and most of them ended up dead too.
I guess being part Croatian and part Native is a bad combination, lol.
Don’t forget about the UFC fighter who ended up in the NHL – John Kordic…best coke head to ever play the game
http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articles/117097/video-first-nhl-goal-rendulic-becomes-first-croatian-score-nhl-goal/
no video?
Peter and Frank Mahovlich – two legends who played for Montreal and Toronto when there were only 6 teams in the league.
Frank is in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Parents were born in Croatia.
Mark Pavelic too.
There are a bunch of players with Croatian ancestry, but he’s Rendulic is the only one born and bred in Cro.
Hamonic, Vlasic, Sarich, Willie Mitchell, there of course was Sakic. All Canadians/Americans with ancestry
Don’t forget the kid on Strong Island.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Hamonic