Chicago Blackhawks left winger Brandon Hagel of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan notched his first career National Hockey League hat trick on Friday. In an 8-5 Chicago Blackhawks win over the New Jersey Devils, Hagel was one of two Blackhawks players to record a hat trick. The other was Patrick Kane.
Hagel scored one goal bin each period. He opened the scoring at 7:34 of the first period with an unassisted marker to put the Blackhawks up 1-0. Hagel then put the Blackhawks up 4-2 with a second period power-play marker from Kane and Alex DeBrincat at 14:09 of the middle frame. Hagel then closed out the scoring with 28 seconds left in the contest with an empty netter. Hagel’s third period goal came from Sam Lafferty and Caleb Jones.
In 47 games this season, Hagel now has 17 goals and 13 assists for 30 points. He is a -13 with 21 penalty minutes, five power-play points, three game-winning goals, 80 shots on goal, 12 faceoff wins, 20 blocked shots, 33 hits, 28 takeaways and 16 giveaways. Hagel’s game-winning goals this season came in a 1-0 Blackhawks win over the Vancouver Canucks on November 21, in a 3-0 Blackhawks win over the Anaheim Ducks on January 15, and in a 4-1 Blackhawks win over the Edmonton Oilers on February 9.
The game against the Devils was a bounce back game for Hagel. On February 20, he had zero points and was a -4 in a 5-2 Chicago loss to the Florida Panthers.
