Panarin had his second hat trick of the season, Pastrnak had three points, Karlsson notched his 600th career assist

Russian hockey forward Artemi Panarin scored his second hat trick this season. David Pastrnak contributed three points to the Boston Bruins’ victory, and Swedish back Erik Karlsson had a career-high number of assists.

Panarin has another hat trick this season

Russian forward Artemi Panarin scored his second hat-trick of the season in the Tampa Bay Lightning vs. New York Rangers (1:5). It is his sixth hat-trick in his overseas career. He improves to 49 points on 23 goals and 26 assists and is tied for third in league scoring.

Mika Zibanejad had one assist on Panarin’s goal, extending his point streak to 10 games with eight goals and nine assists. In addition, the New York Rangers became the first team in a season to break the 50-point mark, which they last did in the 1993/94 season when they won the Stanley Cup.

Pastrnak scored three more points

Czech forward David Pastrnak scored three points after scoring two goals and adding an assist in the Boston Bruins vs. New Jersey Devils (5:2). He contributed significantly to Boston’s victory. Czech goaltender Vitek Vaněček, on the other hand, had a bad game, catching the puck out of his net five times.

The Czech forward is already on pace for 50 points this season. He is currently on 48 points for 22 goals and 26 assists and is in the top 5 in scoring in the entire league. He is the most productive Czech player in the NHL with 19 more points than the second highest Czech Filip Hronek.

“At first I thought I was going to shoot up the boards. But then I looked and I had great speed. In that case it’s hard for the goalie to cover me, so I went all the way to the second bar,” the Pastrnak described after the game.

“We knew the opponent was playing for the second time in two days. So our goal was to gradually build our game until the third period and tire him out a bit. And I think we did a pretty good job for the most part,” he added.

Erik Karlsson on pace for 600 career assists

In the Pittsburgh Penguins vs. St. Louis Blues game (4:2), one rule was once again proven true. If Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin score a goal in the same game, the Penguins win. In addition, offensive-minded back Erik Karlsson had an assist on the fourth goal.

It was his 600th. he became only the 18th defenseman in NHL history to reach that milestone. Moreover, he only needed to play 954 games, making him the eighth fastest defenceman to reach the mark.

The record is held by Hockey Hall of Fame legend Bobby Orr, who played just 608 games. He is followed by Paul Coffey (660), Ray Borque (779), Denis Potvin (786), Al MacInnis (792), Brian Leetch (860) and Phil Housley (875).

Source: NHL