Rocco Grimaldi of Anaheim, CA tied the Nashville Predators record for most goals in a game on Thursday. Grimaldi scored four times as the Predators beat the Detroit Red Wings 7-1 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN.
Grimaldi tied the record previously set by Eric Nystrom of Syosset, NY. Eric Nystrom, who was the son of former New York Islanders legend Bob Nystrom, scored four times in a game in a 5-4 Predators shootout loss to the Calgary Flames on January 24, 2014.
Grimaldi scored his first goal of the game at 5:34 of the first period from Erik Haula of Pori, Finland and Nick Cousins of Belleville, Ontario, to put the Predators up 1-0. He then scored an unassisted marker at 7:39 of the first period to put the Predators up 3-0, his hat trick goal 29 seconds later from Haula, and then scored the final goal of the game at 17:29 of the third period to put Nashville up 7-1. In an interesting twist all four of Grimaldi’s goals were even strength goals.
Grimaldi’s hat trick (plus one) on Thursday simply came from absolutely no where and was simply unexpected, even though it came against one of the worst teams in the entire NHL. Prior to Thursday, Grimaldi only had three goals and one assist for four points in 25 games this season and 23 goals in 181 NHL career regular season games.
This was also Grimaldi’s first career hat trick. He becomes the second NHL player to register four goals in a game this week, and this season. On Wednesday, Andrew Copp of Ann Arbor, MI scored four goals for the Winnipeg Jets in a 5-1 Winnipeg win in Vancouver against the Canucks.
In the win over the Red Wings, Grimaldi was one of three Predators players to have a multi-point game. The others were Erik Haula of Pori, Finland and Roman Josi of Bern, Switzerland, who each had two assists.
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