Forward nets ninth career hat trick and extends point streak to seven games.
Forward nets ninth career hat trick and extends point streak to seven games.
With one goal in the first period and two in the third, Filip Forsberg scored his ninth career hat trick to carry the Nashville Predators to a 4-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday. In doing so, the forward extended his franchise record for three-goal games; perhaps even more impressive than the quantity of goals, though, was the quality of them.
Forsberg scored his first goal on the power play for Nashville at 3:53 of the first period, burying a slick wrist shot from the top of the right circle off a feed from Roman Josi to put the Predators up 1-0.
Forsberg's second goal came at 1:49 of the third period off a backhand pass from linemate Gustav Nyquist, who had three assists on the night. Forsberg received the feed and deked the puck forehand-to-backhand to beat Buffalo goaltender Eric Comrie blocker-side.
Forsberg's third goal came in suspenseful fashion, requiring an official review to determine whether the puck crossed the goal line after he stuffed the puck under Comrie's pads.
"Sometimes in this league, you never know what's a goal or not," Forsberg said after the game. "But (Ryan O'Reilly) said he saw it cross the goal line and he's a pretty trustworthy guy."
The video review confirmed O'Reilly's report, and the hats rained down inside Bridgestone Arena.
Forsberg’s big night extended his point streak to seven games (seven goals, five assists); he is one game away from matching a career-high eight-game point streak (four goals, eight assists) established from April 16-29, 2022.
“He's the whole package,” Predators head coach Andrew Brunette said. “And when he gets going like that, when he's kind of playing a power forward game, instead of a complete skill game, he puts the power forward and the skill comes behind it, and that's a deadly combination.”
Recent Predators News
5 Prospects That Could Finish Season With Predators
Predators Trade Analysis: Trenin Out, Beauvillier In
'We'll See How it Shakes Out': Barrie Knows It Will Be Difficult for Predators to Execute a Trade