Hintz completes hat trick with overtime goal, Ingram has clean sheet, Matthews on pace for 30 goals in season

Finnish forward Roope Hintz scored a hat trick against the Blackhawks, while Ingram recorded his 4th clean sheet of the season. American sniper Matthews has already surpassed the 30-goal mark and confirmed his role as the season’s top scorer.

Hintz completed the hat trick with an overtime goal

Finnish forward Roope Hintz scored the game-winning goal in the Dallas Stars vs. Chicaho Blackhawks (5:4), which went into overtime. He scored his third goal of the game with 8 seconds left in the fifth minute.

He became only the fifth player in Minnesota North Stars/Dallas Stars organization history to complete a hat trick with an overtime goal. Before him, only Neal Broten did it on November 26, 1983, Tom McCarthy on March 12, 1984, Dino Ciccarelli on March 17, 1986 and Jason Robertson did it last season on March 4, 2022.

Ingram’s great performance picked up the Coyotes win

In the game Anaheim Ducks vs. Arizona Coyotes (0:2), the visiting team’s goalie Connor Ingram once again gave a great performance, stopping all 28 Anaheim shot attempts and notching his 4th clean sheet of the season. The Coyotes confirmed their rising form.

This equaled the previous season leader, Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry. Overall, this is his 5th career clean sheet. Ingram once again showed who is currently the Coyotes number one goalie. For the fifth time this season, the team from Arizona scored two or fewer goals and still managed to win.

Matthews has his 30th goal of the season

American forward Auston Matthews scored his 30th goal of the season in the Columbus Blue Jackets vs. Toronto Maple Leafs game (6:5), which was decided in overtime. He is the first player to break that mark in a season and he has done so in each of his eight NHL seasons to date.

The record is held by Mike Gartner and Jaromir Jagr, who have broken the 30-goal mark in a season in 15 consecutive seasons, a feat not even the legendary Wayne Gretzky has achieved. For Matthews, that mark is quite realistic as he is a natural goal scorer like Brett Hull, who also recorded more goals than assists.

Matthews already has a six-point lead over scoring leader Nikita Kucherov. However, he is not an outright goal scorer, but rather picks up points for assists. So he’s boldly going for his third Maurice Richard Trophy, which is for the competition’s top scorer. The record holder is Alexander Ovechkin, who has been the top scorer on nine occasions.

Source: NHL