Mark Pysyk of Edmonton, Alberta recorded his first career National Hockey League hat trick on Monday night. Pysyk scored thrice in a 5-3 Florida Panthers win over the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario.
Pysyk scored the first goal of the game at 11:30 of the first period from fellow defenseman Mike Matheson of Pointe-Claire, Quebec and Denis Malgin. Then at 2:20 of the third period, the Panthers pulled within one goal as Pysyk scored again from Matheson and Josh Brown of London, Ontario. Pysyk’s second goal of the game made the score 3-2 Toronto. Then after the Panthers took the lead on goals by Jonathan Huberdeau of Saint-Jerome, Quebec and Mike Hoffman of Kitchener, Ontario, Pysyk scored into an empty net with an unassisted marker with 48 seconds left to close out the scoring.
Pysyk was one of three Panthers with a multi-point game. Matheson had three assists and Hoffman had one goal and one assist for two points.
The fact that this hat trick for Pysyk came out of nowhere is an understatement. In 398 games prior to Monday, Pysyk only had 17 goals. In 40 games this season, he has seven goals, six assists, 13 points, is a +2, with 18 penalty minutes, one game winning goal, 46 shots on goal, 30 blocked shots, 34 hits, 12 takeaways and 11 giveaways.
The Panthers are in third place in the Atlantic Division. They have a record of 29 wins, 17 regulation losses and six losses in extra time for 64 points. The Panthers lead the Maple Leafs by one point for a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
