North Bay Battalion's Zach Poirier goes coast-to-coast for a superb first OHL goal (VIDEO)

Call it fighting through, call it perseverance, or just call it a goal.

At the outset of the season, 16-year-old Zach Poirier said his mother "taught me everything I know about hockey," but it's questionable how Karen Poirier or anyone could have imparted to the North Bay Battalion rookie how to regain the puck on the rush and score a sweet first career OHL goal.

On Thursday, Zach Poirier electrified the North Bay Battalion fateful by going 1-on-3 against the Owen Sound Attack back line — generally not the most pragmatic strategy — and scoring in his fourth career Ontario Hockey League game.

The native of Mountain, Ont., accelerated and backed up the last defender, Owen Sound's Santino Centorame. Centorame actually made a good play initially by poke-checking Poirier. But Poirier quickly tapped the puck out of the air to regain possession all while maintaining his speed, then deked Attack goalie Jack Flinn — who can fill at a lot of the lower half of the net, what with being 6-foot-8 — to complete the play.

That was moderately awesome. Flinn and the Attack did get the last laugh with a 3-2 overtime win.

Like most 16-year-olds in the OHL, Poirier is all potential at this point, but he's already shown some flair for the highlightp play during his first month in the league. The centre instantly endeared himself to Battalion fans in the preseason with a heavy check in one of his first exhibition games.

And apparently he can score, too.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet (video: TV Cogeco Ontario).