Toronto Maple Leafs centre John Tavares of Mississauga, Ontario recorded his 13th National Hockey League career hat trick on Monday. He accomplished the feat in a 6-4 Maple Leafs win over the Winnipeg Jets from the Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba. This was the Jets’s first loss of the season as they were the only team not to lose a game in 2024-25 prior to Monday. Toronto meanwhile, snapped a three game losing streak.
Tavares opened the scoring at 11:56 of the first period from Max Pacioretty and defenseman Jake McCabe. Tavares then scored the game-winning goal with two minutes and seven seconds left in the second period. He scored from Oliver Ekman-Larsson and William Nylander, and put the Maple Leafs up 5-2 at the time. Tavares then closed out the scoring into an empty net from defenseman Chris Tanev of Toronto, Ontario, with 25 seconds left in the game.
Of Tavares’s 13 career hat tricks, eight have come with the New York Islanders and five with the Maple Leafs. He scored a career high four goals in a game on March 25, 2019 in a 7-5 Maple Leafs win over the Florida Panthers.
In nine games this season, Tavares is averaging a point per game. He has five goals and four assists with a +3, and six penalty minutes, one power-play point, one game-winning goal, 35 shots on goal, 78 faceoff wins, three blocked shots, nine hits, three takeaways, and eight giveaways. Tavares’s power-play point came on October 16 in a 6-2 Maple Leafs win over the Los Angeles Kings. This was a power-play goal and came from Mitch Marner of Markham, Ontario and Auston Matthews with two minutes and 44 seconds left in the third period.
With the win, the Maple Leafs improved to a record of five wins, four regulation losses, and one loss in extra time. With 11 points, they are in third place in the Atlantic Division.
