Aleksander Barkov records first period hat trick

Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov of Tampere, Finland became the fifth National Hockey League player to score three goals in a single period this season. He accomplished the feat in a 7-2 Florida Panthers win over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

First Period Hat Trick

Barkov opened the scoring at 2:37 of the first period from Carter Verhaeghe of Toronto, Ontario, and Gustav Forsling of Linkoping, Sweden. He then scored on the power-play at 11:50 of the first period from Sam Reinhart of West Vancouver, British Columbia and Matthew Tkachuk of Scottsdale, Arizona to put the Panthers up 2-0. Barkov’s hat trick was an unassisted marker at 15:22 of the first period to put the Panthers up 3-1.

Five Point Game

Barkov added two more assists in the game. They came at 6:22 of the second period on a power-play goal by Tkachuk, which put the Panthers up 4-2, and at 7:24 of the third period on a power-play goal by Tkachuk, which put the Panthers up 6-2. This was the second time that Barkov had five points in one game. The first time was on March 8, 2019 in a 6-2 Panthers win over the Minnesota Wild, a game that saw Barkov have five assists.

Single Period Hat Tricks in 2022-23

Barkov is the fifth National Hockey League player to register three or more goals in a single period. Tage Thompson of the Buffalo Sabres actually had four goals in the first period on December 7 in a 9-4 Sabres win our the Columbus Blue Jackets. Three other players to have a single period hat trick this season were Christian Dvorak of the Montreal Canadiens, Jack Eichel of the Vegas Golden Knights and Andrei Kuzmenko of the Vancouver Canucks.

Fourth Career Hat Trick

This was Barkov’s fourth career hat trick and second against the Canadiens. The first one came on February 17, 2019 in a 6-3 Panthers win. Barkov also had hat tricks on December 15, 2018 in a 4-3 Panthers win over the Toronto Maple Leafs and in a 3-2 Panthers win over the New York Islanders on April 19.