San Jose Sharks left winger William Eklund of Stockholm, Sweden recorded his first career National Hockey League hat trick on Saturday. He accomplished the feat in a 3-2 Sharks overtime win over the St. Louis Blues at the SAP Center in San Jose, California. This was also a notable game because Devin Cooley of Los Gatos, California recorded his first NHL regular season victory. He made 34 saves on 36 shots.
How and When did Eklund Score Thrice?
Eklund opened the scoring from defenseman Henry Thrun of Southborough, Massachusetts and Mikael Granlund of Oulu, Finland with a power-play goal at 14:42 of the second period. Eklund then put the Sharks up 2-0 with three minutes and one second left in the second period on the power-play. Fabian Zetterlund of Karlstad, Sweden and Thomas Bordeleau of Houston, Texas had the assists. Then with the game tied at two, Eklund scored from Luke Kunin of Chesterfield, Missouri at 3:56 of overtime for the three-on-three even strength game-winning goal to give Detroit a 3-2 win.
Unique Hat Trick
Eklund is one of four players this season to score all three of his team’s goals in a victory. The others are Teuvo Teravainen of Helsinki, Finland in a 3-0 Carolina Hurricanes win over the Sharks on October 27, 2023, Brad Marchand of Halifax, Nova Scotia in a 3-1 Boston Bruins win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on December 3, 2023, and Zach Hyman of Toronto, Ontario in a 3-1 Edmonton Oilers win over the Ottawa Senators on January 6, 2024.
Eklund’s Statistics in 2023-24
Eklund has 15 goals and 25 assists for 40 points in 74 games. However, he has been horrendous defensively, as he is a NHL worst -42. Eklund also has 30 penalty minutes, 16 power-play points, five game-winning goals, one shorthanded point, 121 shots on goal, 71 faceoff wins, 67 blocked shots, 35 hits, 22 takeaways and 21 giveaways. Eklund’s shorthanded point came on December 7 in a 6-5 Sharks overtime win over the Detroit Red Wings. Eklund set up Tomas Hertl of Praha, Czech Republic.
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