Hartman's hat trick a real winner for Chicago Blackhawks
No matter how much longer Ryan Hartman plays in the NHL, odds are he will never record a hat trick the way he did during the Chicago Blackhawks' 5-2 victory over Nashville on Sunday night at the United Center.
A crazy move by Richard Panik led to a crazier goal by Hartman, which led to perhaps one of the craziest hat tricks ever recorded.
With the game tied at 2-2 midway through the third period, Tanner Kero hit Panik with a pass right in front of Predators goalie Pekka Rinne. Panik slipped the puck between his legs, twice flipped it at Rinne and watched it balloon up in the air. At that point, it somehow caromed off Hartman's hip and flew over the goal line just as the cage came off its moorings.
The goal, which came with 8:11 left in the game, stood after a review, Hartman added 2 empty-net goals and the Hawks waltzed out of the United Center with their third straight victory.
"A pretty remarkable way of scoring 3 goals in a short amount of time without really making a play on the goaltender," said Hawks coach Joel Quenneville.
Said Hartman: "It's not really how you draw it up. But they count."
Artemi Panarin and Niklas Hjalmarsson also scored for the Hawks, while Corey Crawford made 25 saves. Hjalmarsson's goal was his fifth, a career high.
Patrick Kane had 3 assists, giving him 7 points in his last three games.
Hartman never would have had a chance at a third goal if not for the unselfish play of Panik and the veteran smarts of Kane.
Hartman's second goal came with 1:14 remaining and could have gone to Panik, who was chasing Hartman's 90-foot shot with Nashville's Filip Forsberg.
"It was a skating race with (their) guy and the puck was going straight to the net," said Panik, who then added with a smile, "My first thought was, 'I can't take this from him.' "
With just 74 seconds remaining, was Hartman thinking about getting Goal No. 3?
"It's hard not to," he said. "Kaner came up to me and said, 'You got 2 tonight?' I said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'All right. I'm going to get it to you.' "
And that's exactly what happened, as Hjalmarsson tapped the puck to Kane, who slid it to Hartman, who buried the clincher with 32 seconds left.
"It's one of those things where you get your first hat trick and then three or four days from now no one's going to even remember that he had two empty (netters)," Kane said. "He's been a big player for us this year and he's been very productive. … He's had a great season so far."
He sure has. Hartman now has 10 goals to become the fifth Hawk to reach double digits.
"It's nice," he said. "You're not just in here being another body. You're trying to produce and help the team win. It feels good when you can put a few points up on the board and make some plays."
The Predators - who played without three key players in defenseman P.K. Subban, and forwards James Neal (14 goals) and Viktor Arvidsson (10 goals) - fell to 17-16-7.