For the second time in his career, Eeli Tolvanen has made Seattle Kraken history with a first goal of some kind.

Tolvanen became the first Kraken player to score a goal in Winter Olympics action, as he found the back of the net in the second period for Finland in a men’s hockey opener against Slovakia on Wednesday in Milan, Italy.

You can watch Tolvanen’s goal – along with analysis from Kraken color commentator Eddie Olczyk, who is on the NBC Sports broadcast team for the men’s Olympic hockey tournament – at this link.

The score came nearly three years after Tolvanen had the first postseason goal for Seattle in the first round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Colorado Avalanche.

While Tolvanen’s playoff goal opened the scoring for Seattle in what was a Game 1 win and seven-game series victory, his goal for Finland wasn’t enough on Wednesday. It knotted the score at 1-1, but Finland was surprisingly knocked off 4-1 by Slovakia.

Finland is the defending champion, but these Milano Cortina games are a different case as its 2022 gold medal win came in an edition of the Olympics without NHL players.

This is Tolvanen’s second Olympics playing for Finland after he also took the ice for his home country in 2018, when he had nine points in five games.

In addition to Tolvanen, Finland features his Kraken teammate and fellow right wing Kaapo Kakko. The Kraken also have goalie Philipp Grubauer on Team Germany and rookie forward Oscar Fisker Molgaard playing for Denmark.

Germany and Denmark will open the games against each other at 12:10 p.m. Thursday, while Finland will continue play Friday against Sweden.

The star-studded USA and Canada teams are set to open Winter Olympics play Thursday, with Canada matching up with Latvia at 7:40 a.m. and the USA facing Latvia at 12:10 p.m.

In women’s hockey, a Team USA squad that features a quartet of players from the PWHL’s Seattle Torrent have advanced to the quarterfinals after winning all four of their preliminary games by a combined score of 25-1.

The Kraken went into the NHL’s break for the Winter Olympics in third place in the Pacific Division with a 27-20-9 record for 63 points in the standings. They are in position for the second-to-last spot in the playoffs from the Western Conference.

Seattle Kraken put rookie Berkly Catton on injured reserve