Columbus Blue Jackets centre Adam Fantilli of Nobleton, Ontario recorded his second career National Hockey League hat trick on Sunday. He accomplished the feat in a 7-3 Columbus Blue Jackets win over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Fantilli’s first goal of the game came at 3:07 of the second period to put the Blue Jackets up 2-1. Dmitri Voronkov had the assist. The Blue Jackets then went up 3-1 at 3:33 of the second period as Fantilli scored again from Voronkov. The two goals scored by Fantilli were 26 seconds apart. The two goals in 26 seconds are the second fastest the same player has scored two goals in Blue Jackets franchise history. The record belongs to Kirill Marchenko, who scored two goals 18 seconds apart on December 19, 2023 in a 9-4 Blue Jackets win over the Buffalo Sabres.
Fantilli’s hat trick closed the scoring at 11:51 of the third period. Defenseman Damon Severson of Melville, Saskatchewan and Marchenko had the assists.
Fantilli was one of two Canadians on the Blue Jackets with a multi-point game. The other was defenseman Dante Fabbro of Coquitlam, British Columbia, who had one goal and one assist for two points. Two more Canadians scored for the Blue Jackets. They were Justin Danforth of Oshawa, Ontario and Kent Johnson of Port Moody, British Columbia.
Fantilli’s first NHL hat trick came on January 22, 2025 in a 5-1 Blue Jackets win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. In 63 games in 2024-25, Fantilli has 21 goals and 20 assists for 41 points. He is a +1 with 14 penalty minutes, four power-play points, two shorthanded points, one game-winning goal, 142 shots on goal, 334 faceoff wins, 46 blocked shots, 86 hits, 19 takeaways, and 73 giveaways. Fantilli’s game-winning goal came on October 28 in a 6-1 Blue Jackets win over the Edmonton Oilers. He scored from Cole Sillinger of Regina, Saskatchewan at 10:44 of the first period which put the Blue Jackets up 2-0 at the time.
The Blue Jackets are in a playoff spot with the seventh best record in the Eastern Conference. With 70 points (31 wins, 24 regulation losses and eight losses in extra time), they lead the Rangers by two points for a playoff spot.
