Alex Kostov dominated on home ice this past weekend, netting back-to-back hat tricks and earning OHL Player of the Week honors for his historic performance.
The Flint Firebirds stayed home this past weekend, hosting the North Bay Battalion on Friday, and the Guelph Storm on Saturday. The team scorched their opposition, outscoring them 15-6, led by their fourth-year forward, Alex Kostov.
Kostov, 19, set career highs last season with 16 goals and 45 points, while playing in all 68 regular season games. He also set a career high in penalty minutes with 92, as he is unafraid to get his hands dirty and mix it up with his opponents.
On Friday night against the Battalion, the Firebirds exploded for seven goals in the second period. Kostov accounted for three of them, hitting the 10-goal mark in just his 15th game of the season. He added another goal late in the game, concluding an incredible four-goal performance, and rightfully earning the OHL’s first star of the night across all games.
Kostov had never scored a hat trick in his OHL career until Friday. In fact, he had only recorded three multi-goal games prior to that. It seems he enjoyed the experience of scoring a hat trick and seeing the hats fly onto the ice so much that he wanted to do it again the following night against Guelph.
The 6-foot-4 center scored twice in the opening frame to lead Flint out to a 3-2 lead after the first. With Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Quinn Beauchesne scoring at the midway point of the third period to cut Flint’s lead to just two, Kostov stepped up and put the nail in the coffin just a minute later, completing back-to-back hat tricks.
Kostov is the first player in Flint Firebirds history to score hat tricks on consecutive nights. This achievement was previously accomplished by former OHL forward Tom Sestito in December 2006, but he did so as a member of the Plymouth Whalers, the team that Flint replaced.
Kostov attended the Nashville Predators’ rookie camp this past summer and made a lasting enough impression to earn an amateur tryout invite to their official training camp.
It should come as no surprise since the 2006-born forward recorded seven goals and two assists in two nights; Kostov was named the OHL’s Player of the Week.
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