The Vancouver Canucks’ sensational rookie, Elias Pettersson, notched his first NHL hat trick in a 4-3 win over the Ottawa Senators in overtime.
He completed the feat with the OT winner.
“If you work hard and believe in something, I think everything is possible,” Pettersson said. “This has always been my dream, what I’ve always been working for, growing up. Now I’m here and living my dream and playing in Vancouver.”
Sven Baertschi opened the scoring for the Canucks before Pettersson took over the offense for the natural hat trick.
“Good to see my fellow Swede get three goals,” Jacob Markstrom said. “He (hit) some crossbars today too, so could’ve been even more goals. He’s a competitor, loves to score goals and loves to win, so we’re happy to have him.”
Markstrom made 30 saves in the win as the Canucks improved to 20-19-4.
“This was one of those games where [Markstrom] wasn’t getting a lot of work early,” Canucks coach Travis Green, “and those are hard games for goalies, especially when you look and the shots are what they are and you know that he’s going to have to make some big saves. And that’s part of the maturity that he’s shown. He was good in the second half.”
Mark Stone, Christian Wolanin and Matt Duchene scored for the Senators who dropped to 15-21-5.
“We can’t expect to win giving up [45] shots, or whatever it was,” Stone said. “Our goaltender was really the only reason we had a chance tonight. He’s given us three great efforts for a guy who’s playing his first three games in the National Hockey League.”
[WATCH: All Canucks vs. Senators highlights]
Marcus Hogberg made 41 saves in the loss.
“The easy way out in the situation with the way things have been going would be to roll over and say, ‘Darn, not our year, not our time, not our stretch,’ but you’ve got to take some pride in the effort and the battle we showed here,” the Senators’ Mark Borowiecki said.
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