In Elmont, the Calgary Flames made a visit to The Island, and skated off with a 5-2 win over the Islanders on Saturday.
Flames’ defenseman MacKenzie Weegar hit for a hat trick in the win.
“I never would have thought I’d have a hat trick in the NHL,” Weegar said. “Credit to my teammates, of course. We’ve just been playing great hockey. I’m sure, back home, everybody’s having some fun with it.”
Jacob Markstrom made 35 saves in the win, he also picked up an assist.
“I think for a while now, obviously the work ethic and just rolling four lines and three [defense] pairs [has been key],” Markstrom said. “The power play got us one today, and the penalty kill is really good. So, it was a good overall game.
“As a group, we need everyone to be going to be successful.”
The Flames improved to 25-22-5 off their fourth straight win.
Weegar picked up his first of the game at 3″47 of the opening stanza.
Jonathan Huberdeau pushed the lead to 2-0 at 8:38 of the middle frame, scoring off the power play.
Weegar collected his double at 15:16 of the second to balloon the advantage to 3-0 for the Flames.
“He’s unbelievable,” Huberdeau said of Weegar. “He was just rewarded tonight, getting his first hat trick. Head down, shoot the puck and it’s going in this year, so it’s nice.
“… He doesn’t get the opportunity to get a hat trick every game, so I’m really happy for him. He worked hard his whole life for it.”
The Islanders dropped to 22-18-12.
“I really hate to lose, especially in our building,” New York coach Patrick Roy said. “I feel like we need to be a little more dominant at home than what we did.”
The Islanders tried to rally in the third period with a pair of goals.
Brock Nelson and Jean-Gabriel Pageau were the third period strikers for the Isles.
Nelson trimmed the deficit to 3-1 with four minutes gone in the third.
Blake Coleman hit an empty net at 15:59 to extend the lead for the Flames back to three at 4-1.
Pageau then hit for his goal at 17:28 to make it 4-2.
Weegar collected his hats at 18:38 for the 5-2 final count on the scoreboard.
“Until probably the last seven or eight minutes of the third period, I thought that was a pretty complete game for us again, similar to what we saw in Boston (4-1 win on Tuesday),” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said. “And we had all sorts of contributions from people, so that’s something that was important too.”
Use CodePHN15 Weegar earns the #PHNChairoftheNight for hat trick in win over Islanders
Semyon Varlamov made 19 saves in the loss.
“It’s tough. I think it wasn’t our best,” Nelson said. “I wouldn’t say it was horrible, but for some reason we have found ourselves not really generating much possession and offensive zone time that we maybe had the last couple of weeks. Early, we found ourselves in a hole, and a little too late in the third when we started to find it.”
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