Hertl scored his first assist in the 16th minute at the goal at 2: 0. The 28-year-old Czech center worked well on the offensive blue line, kept the disc against the two defending players and, by throwing it in front of the goal, found exactly the hockey stick ending Balcers. With the second pass, Hertl prepared the third goal for Meier. The Swiss forward used the work of the Czech forward at the guardrail, found his push in front of the goal and closed his first hat-trick in the current season.
For the third time, Hertl entered the statistics after a minute and a half of the second half, when he joined the power play Sharks, which Meier finished with his fourth goal in the match. At the end of the second part, the Czech forward found Meier in front of goalkeeper Jonathan Quick, and the 25-year-old Swiss crowned his great performance with a fifth goal.
“Honestly, I don’t even remember the last time I scored five goals,” Meier laughed after the match. “I guess it was somewhere in the junior league in the Swiss league,” he added, adding that scoring five goals in the NHL is, of course, something special. “It’s a pretty good feeling. But you don’t want to fly in the clouds at the same time. We have time off tomorrow and then we’ll go back to work. It will definitely give me a lot of confidence, but I have to keep working hard.”
“I think he worked really hard on his game. In recent years, he has alternated between good and worse, but now he is really consistent and proves he belongs to the top of the NHL,” said Hertl, who confirmed the position of the most productive Czech hockey player in the NHL. With 35 points for twenty goals and fifteen recordings, the Prague native leads by four records ahead of David Pastrňák (16 + 15).
The Chicago hockey players lost to Seattle 2: 3 after separate raids and lost their four-match winning streak. Kubalík took part in both Blackhawks goals. The Pilsen native first opened the score with his ninth goal of the season in the 32nd minute and at 37:06 he took part in the leading goal of Brandon Hagel in 2: 1.
The Frenchman jumped into the Colorado goal in the duel against Minnesota in the 30th minute, when he replaced the injured Darcy Kuemper in the score 2: 1 for Avalanche. In the rest of the match, the Czech goalkeeper scored two goals from 27 shots. In the shootout, the Frenchman caught all three attempts of Wild and was declared the first star of the match.
The two-goal scorer of Minnesota, Kirill Kaprizov, did not turn the decisive raid. “I know him from the KHL, I know how he ends, so I tried to be patient. He drove really close to me and I just tried to hide the disc in the trap,” the Frenchman described the decisive moment of the shooting.
Thanks to the contribution of the Czech goalkeeper, the Avalanche hockey players won the 14th home match in a row and are leading the Western Conference. Minnesota remained fourth despite the loss.
In a duel of the two worst teams, he caught the fourth win of the season in Vejmelka. The former goalkeeper of the Brno Comet covered 24 shots against Montreal. The Coyotes have won the third of the last six matches and confirmed the upward trend in performance. The Canadiens hesitated for the thirteenth time in fourteen games and were the only ones in the NHL still not to cross the 20-point mark.
| NHL Results: |
|---|
| San Jose – Los Angeles 6:2 (4:1, 2:0, 0:1) |
| Goals: 4th, 19th, 20th, 22nd and 40th T. Meier (third, fourth and fifth Hertl), 16th Balcers (Hertl) – 20th Kopitar, 51st M. Anderson. Shots on goal: 17:41. Attendance: 10,705. Match Stars: 1. T. Meier, 2. Hertl, 3. E. Karlsson (all San Jose). |
| Seattle – Chicago 3: 2 after sam. raids (0: 0, 1: 2, 1: 0 – 0: 0) |
| Goals: 36. Vince Dunn, 43rd and decisive sam. raid Donato – 33. D. Kubalík, 38. Hagel (D. Kubalík). Shots on goal: 37:27. Attendance: 17,151. Match Stars: 1. M.-A. Fleury (Chicago), 2nd Grubauer, 3rd Donato (both Seattle). |
| NY Islanders – Philadelphia 4: 1 (0: 0, 2: 1, 2: 0) |
| Goals: 32. Nelson, 35. Cizikas, 45. Beauvillier, 59. M. Martin – 38. Konecny. Shots on goal: 31:27. Attendance: 17,255. Match Stars: 1. Sorokin, 2. Nelson, 3. Beauvillier (all NY Islanders). |
| Arizona – Montreal 5:2 (2:1, 2:1, 1:0) |
| Goals: 6. T. Boyd, 9. Johan Larsson, 25. Moser, 39. N. Schmaltz, 59. Keller – 16. R. Pitlick, 32. Poehling. Shots on goal: 23:26. Attendance: 9495. Match Stars: 1. N. Schmaltz, 2. Johan Larsson, 3. Moser (all Arizona). Karel Vejmelka caught the whole match for Arizona, he collected two goals from 26 shots and the success rate was 92.3 percent. |
| St. Louis – Nashville 5:3 (2:2, 2:0, 1:1) |
| Goals: 17. and 26. I. Barbašov, 21. and 58. B. Schenn, 18. R. O’Reilly – 5. Johansen, 16. F. Forsberg, 52. Trenin. Shots on goal: 29:35. Attendance: 18,096. Match stars: 1. B. Schenn, 2. I. Barbašov, 3. R. O’Reilly (all St. Louis). |
| Buffalo – Detroit 2: 3 in overtime (1: 0, 0: 0, 1: 2 – 0: 1) |
| Goals: 10. Jokiharju, 50. Skinner – 54th and 63rd Larkin, 51st Deputy. Shots on goal: 28:35. Attendance: 8839. Match Stars: 1. Larkin (Detroit), 2. Skinner (Buffalo), 3. Naměstnikov (Detroit). |
| Colorado – Minnesota 4: 3 sam. raids (2: 0, 0: 1, 1: 2 – 0: 0) |
| Goals: 16th and decisive alone. Rantanen Raid, 18th Newhook, 57th MacKinnon – 47th and 58th Kaprizov, 21st K. Fiala. Shots on goal: 38:40. Attendance: 17,565. Match Stars: 1. French (Colorado), 2. Kaprizov (Minnesota), 3. MacKinnon (Colorado). Pavel Francouz caught 35 minutes and 34 seconds in Colorado, collected two goals from 27 shots and had a success rate of 92.6 percent. |
| Vegas – Pittsburgh 3:5 (3:0, 0:2, 0:3) |
| Goals: 4. Stephenson, 13. Dadonov, 20. N. Roy – 27. Zucker, 28. Blueger, 41. Kasperi Kapanen, 43. Guentzel, 59. Crosby. Shots on goal: 26:38. Attendance: 18,213. Match Stars: 1. Zucker (Pittsburgh), 2. N. Roy, 3. Janmark (both Vegas). |
