Jason Robertson named NHL first star of the week

Jason Robertson of Arcadia, California was named the NHL first star of the week on Monday for the period from February 28 to March 6. He became only the second player in the history of the Dallas Stars/Minnesota North Stars franchise to record a hat trick in back-to-back games, according to Taylor Baird of SB Nation. After recording a hat trick on Friday in a 4-3 overtime win over the Winnipeg Jets, Robertson scored thrice again in a 6-3 win over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday.

The only other Stars player in franchise history to record a hat trick in back-to-back games was Bill Goldsworthy of Waterloo, Ontario. On March 16, 1971, Goldsworthy had three goals and one assist in a 7-2 Minnesota win over the Los Angeles Kings. Then on March 21, 1971, he scored four goals in a 6-3 Minnesota win over the Vancouver Canucks.

In three games, Robertson had seven goals for seven points. He was a +3 with two game-winning goals, one power-play goal, 18 shots on goal, three hits, and two blocked shots.

On Sunday, Robertson put the Stars up 2-1 with a second period goal from John Klingberg of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Jamie Benn of Victoria, British Columbia at 1:38 on the power play. Robertson then scored the game-winning goal for Dallas at 9:52 of the second period from Roope Hintz of Tampere, Finland, and Joe Pavelski of Plover, Wisconsin to put the Stars up 4-1. Robertson’s hat trick then closed out the scoring with 32 seconds left in the third period from Hintz into an empty net.

The hat tricks against the Jets and Wild were the first two hat tricks in Robertson’s National Hockey League career. He did not record a hat trick in his first 99 NHL career games. In the 2021-22 season, Robertson has 29 goals and 25 assists for 54 points in 47 games. He is a +20 with 16 penalty minutes, 15 power-play points, nine game-winning goals, 142 shots on goal, 17 blocked shots, 24 hits, 32 takeaways and 32 giveaways. Robertson currently leads the Stars with 29 goals, nine game-winning goals, and is tied with Hintz with a +20. Robertson’s nine game-winning goals is second in the NHL, behind Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers, who has 10 game-winning goals.