Jared Spurgeon of Edmonton, Alberta registered his first National Hockey League career hat trick on Friday. Spurgeon, a defenseman for the Minnesota Wild, scored three times in a 5-3 Wild win over the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place. In a fascinating coincidence, Spurgeon had his hat trick in his hometown.
Spurgeon scored the last three goals of the hockey game. He tied the game at three goals apiece at 10:55 of the second period from Alex Galchenyuk and Victor Rask. The Wild recently acquired Galchenyuk from the Pittsburgh Penguins for Jason Zucker on February 10.
Spurgeon then scored the game winning goal at 10:07 of the third period from Ryan Suter and Zach Parise to break a 3-3 tie and put the Wild up 4-3. Spurgeon then notched his hat trick with 1:38 left in the third period into an empty net from Canadian Olympic gold medalist Eric Staal of Thunder Bay, Ontario to put the Wild up 5-3. Staal won his Olympic gold medal for Canada in men’s hockey at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.
Spurgeon now has 10 goals and 18 assists for 28 points in 53 games. He is a -6 with 16 penalty minutes, 11 power play points, two game winning goals, 102 shots on goal, 87 blocked shots, 45 hits, seven takeaways and 19 giveaways. Spurgeon’s two game winning goals tied a career high. He also had two game winning goals in 2012-13, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18.
The Wild improve to a record of 29 wins, 24 losses and seven losses in extra time for 65 points. They are four points back of the Winnipeg Jets for a playoff spot.
