With offense seemingly decreasing in the NHL, hat tricks should become rarer. If that’s the case, someone forgot to tell the Canucks and Penguins.
Jannik Hansen kicked off the scoring 27 seconds into the game and he added a shorthanded goal just over 16 minutes later.
Evgeni Malkin cut Vancouver’s lead to 2-1 with a power play goal in the second period.
That’s when the craziness started.
Canucks forward Bo Horvat extended Vancouver’s lead to 3-1 at the six-minute mark of the third, but sadly for Vancouver, that’s as good as things would get.
The momentum turned in Pittsburgh’s favor after Canucks forward Linden Vey scored in his own net to cut the Pens’ deficit to 3-2.
Malkin completed the hat trick three minutes after Vey’s mistake:
And Bryan Rust scored the go-ahead goal less than three minutes after that.
With his team trailing 5-3, Hansen managed to complete a hat trick of his own with 17 seconds remaining.
Today marks only 11th time in Pens' history both Pgh and opponent had HTs in same game, just 7th time at home.
— Bob Grove (@bobgrove91) January 23, 2016
First time Pens & opponent had HTs in same game since Mario and Derek King (NYI) on Oct. 15, 1991 @ NYI in 7-6 Pens' win.
— Bob Grove (@bobgrove91) January 23, 2016
Also happened here vs. Canucks on Oct. 6, 1976 when Kehoe and Rick Blight both had HTs in 9-5 Pens' win. Blight with 4 that game.
— Bob Grove (@bobgrove91) January 23, 2016
Vancouver ends their six-game road trip with a 3-2-1 record while the Penguins have won three of their last four contests.
You can watch all the scoring by clicking on the video at the top of the page.