Two significant Thursday hat tricks

There have been 16 hat tricks during the 2022-23 National Hockey League regular season. However, the two hat tricks on Thursday had significance. Jack Eichel of the Vegas Golden Knights scored thrice, against his former team, the Buffalo Sabres, in a 7-4 Vegas win at Buffalo’s KeyBank Center, against a Sabres franchise Eichel played six seasons with from 2015 to 2021. Meanwhile, for the second time this season, Andrei Svchenikov of the Carolina Hurricanes had a hat trick against the Edmonton Oilers. After scoring thrice in a 6-4 Carolina loss to the Edmonton Oilers on October 20, Svechnikov scored three times in a 7-2 Carolina win over Edmonton on Thursday. In both games, Svechnikov had only three points, and did not record an assist.

Jack Eichel Hat Trick

Eichel of North Chelmsford, Massachusetts scored his three goals for Vegas on seven shots on goal, and also added an assist on a goal by Alex Pietrangelo of King City, Ontario. For Pietrangelo, a Canadian Olympic gold medalist from the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, it was his first goal of the season. All of Eichel’s goals came in the third period, as he scored the last three Golden Knights goals. He put Vegas up 5-2, and scored the game-winning goal at 6:13 of the final frame from Pietrangelo and Chandler Stephenson. Eichel then put Vegas up 6-3 and scored from Stephenson and Mark Stone at 14:37 0f the third period. Eichel’s hat trick came with eight seconds left in the third period into an empty net from Alec Martinez to close out the scoring.

This was Eichel’s third career hat trick. The first two were with the Sabres. On December 15, 2017, he scored thrice in a 5-4 Sabres loss to the Hurricanes, and the second one came on November 16, 2019, in a 4-2 Sabres win over the Ottawa Senators.

In 2022-23, Eichel has nine goals and 10 assists for 19 points. He was a +13 with five power-play points,  two game-winning goals, 56 shots on goal, 77 faceoff wins, nine blocked shots, 12 hits, six takeaways, and 12 giveaways. The Golden Knights lead the Pacific Division with 26 points.

Andrei Svechnikov Hat Trick

Svechnikov of Barnaul, Russia, had his three goals on four shots. He opened the scoring from Teuvo Teravainen and Sebastian Aho for the only goal scored in the first period, with 20 seconds left in the opening frame. Svechnikov then put the Hurricanes up 3-1 with a goal from Martin Necas at 10:24 of the second period. He then put the Hurricanes up 6-2 from Aho and Calvin de Haan at 15:49 of the third period to put the Hurricanes up 6-2.

This was Svechnikov’s third career hat trick. His first career hat trick came on August 3, 2020 in a 4-1 Hurricanes win over the New York Rangers. It came in game two of the qualifying round of the 2020 NHL season.

In 2022-23, Svechnikov has 11 goals and six assists for 17 points in 14 games. He is a +1 with six penalty minutes, seven power-play points, one game-winning goal, 46 shots on goal, three blocked shots, 25 hits, eight takeaways and eight giveaways. The Hurricanes have 19 points, and are in second place in the Metropolitan Division, three points back of the New Jersey Devils.