Dallas Stars centre Mavrik Bourque of Plessisville, Quebec recorded his first National Hockey League career hat trick on Monday. He accomplished the feat in a 6-5 Stars win over the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Scotiabank, Arena in Toronto, Ontario.
Bourque’s first goal of the game was unassisted at the 52 second mark of the second period. The goal put the Stars on the scoreboard after the Maple Leafs went up 3-0. Bourque then pulled the Stars within one goal (3-2 Toronto) with a goal at 5:31 of the second period. Canadian Olympic gold medalist Matt Duchene of Haliburton, Ontario, and Jason Robertson had the assists. Bourque then scored the game-winning goal with five minutes and eight seconds left in the third period to break a 5-5 deadlock. Defenseman Alexander Petrovic of Edmonton, Alberta and Duchene had the assists on an all-Canadian goal. Duchene won a gold medal for Canada at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.
Also in the second period, Bourque had an assist on a goal by Robertson. At the time, the Stars tied the game at three. The four points were also a career-high.
Bourque was one of two Canadians to score a goal and have a multi-point game. The other Canadian to score for the Stars was Wyatt Johnston of Toronto. Meanwhile, Duchene had three assists for three points.
This season, Bourque has 19 goals and 21 assists for 40 points in 81 games. He is a +6 with 20 penalty minutes, five power-play points, one game-winning goal, 146 shots on goal, 103 faceoff wins, 21 blocked shots, 78 hits, 15 takeaways, and 51 giveaways.
With the win, the Stars improved to a record of 49 wins, 20 regulation losses and 12 losses in extra time for 110 points. They are in second place in the Central Division.
