Kevin Hayes of Dorchester, Massachusetts recorded his first career National Hockey League hat trick on Tuesday. He accomplished the feat in a 5-2 Flyers win over the Anaheim Ducks at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It should be noted that Hayes’s hat trick came after Flyers’s head coach John Tortorella banned iPads from the Flyers bench.
How the three goals were scored
Hayes opened the scoring with the only first period goal of the hockey game. He scored from Anthony DeAngelo of Sewell, New Jersey and Travis Konecny of London, Ontario on the power play at 13:32 of the opening frame. Hayes then put the Flyers up 4-1 from Scott Laughton of Oakville, Ontario and Wade Allison of Carman, Manitoba at 2:30 of the third period. Then at 19:16 of the third period, Hayes closed out the scoring with an empty net goal from Cameron York of Anaheim, California and Allison.
Notable game for Rasmus Ristolainen
It was also a notable game for Flyers defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen of Turku, Finland. That is because he scored his first ever shorthanded goal of his 1o-year NHL career. It came at 12:43 of the second period to put the Flyers up 2-1 at the time. Laughton and Konecny picked up the assists. This was also the fourth shorthanded point of Ristolainen’s career. He had two shorthanded assists while with the Buffalo Sabres and one with the Flyers.
Hayes’s 2022-23 statistics
In 44 games this season, Hayes has 13 goals and 27 assists for 40 points. He is a -6 with 15 penalty minutes, 13 power-play points, one game-winning goal, 125 shots on goal, 14 blocked shots, 31 hits, 19 takeaways and 19 giveaways. Hayes’s game-winning goal came on November 29 in a 3-1 Flyers win over the New York Islanders.
Reaching the .500 mark
With the win, the Flyers are now at .500 with a record of 19 wins, 19 regulation losses, and seven losses in extra time for 45 points. They are five points back of the Pittsburgh Penguins for a playoff spot.
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