Montreal Canadiens right winger Joel Armia of Pori, Finland has had a tough 2022-23 National Hockey League regular season. In 39 regular season games, Armia only had four goals and seven assists for 11 points. He has missed a significant amount of time with upper body injuries. On Thursday, Armia tried to salvage his disappointing season a little bit by recording the second hat trick of his NHL career in a 6-2 Canadiens win over the Washington Capitals.
How and When the Three Goals were Scored
Armia put the Canadiens up 2-1 with a shorthanded goal from Mike Matheson of Pointe-Claire, Quebec and Jake Evans of Toronto, Ontario at 7:52 of the second period. It was actually the second shorthanded goal the Canadiens scored in the period as captain Nick Suzuki of London, Ontario tied the game at one at 3:42 of the middle frame. Armia then put the Canadiens up 4-1 from Matheson and Suzuki at 11:15 of the second period, and then scored an empty-net goal from rookie left winger Rafael Harvey-Pinard of Saguenay, Quebec with three minutes and two seconds left in the contest.
2022-23 NHL Statistics
In addition to 14 points in 40 games (seven goals and seven assists), Armia is a-7 with 22 penalty minutes. He has one power-play point, one shorthanded point, 66 shots on goal, two faceoff wins, 24 blocked shots, 32 hits, 16 takeaways, and 11 giveaways.
First career NHL hat trick
Armia’s first career National Hockey League hat trick came on March 1, 2019. The Canadiens defeated the New York Rangers 4-2.
Breakout offensive night
The six goals for the Canadiens were a little surprising when they were shutout 3-0 by the Carolina Hurricanes (only 14 shots) on April 1 and 5-0 by the Detroit Red Wings on April 4. The other Canadiens goal scorers on Thursday were Mike Hoffman of Kitchener, Ontario and Brendan Gallagher of Edmonton, Alberta. The Capitals meanwhile are missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2014.
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