Kopitar scored all three goals in the third period for his second hat trick in the season opener and seventh of his career. In this indicator, the Slovenian veteran has overtaken Wayne Gretzky and Dustin Brown, with whom he shared the honor of the “Kings” record holders in three goal matches (6).
The only goal of the “Sabres” at the end of the second period was scored by Alex Tuck, but it did not save the team from the third loss in three matches of the new season.
In another game, this year’s No. 1 draft pick MacLean Celebrini had a goal and an assist in his debut, but his San Jose Sharks lost to the St. Louis Blues in overtime.
Celebrini opened the score already in the eighth minute of the game, when after his pass to the front of the goal, the puck hit the skate of the visiting defender and found its way into the goal, but the young forward got an assist in the 18th minute, helping Tyler Tofoli to make it 2:1.
In the continuation, after the goals of Fabian Setterlund and Barclay Goodrow in the second period, “Sharks” took the lead with 4:1, but could not protect the victory.
At the beginning of the final third, Radek Faksa and Ryan Sutter reduced the advantage of the home team to a minimum, but in the last minute of regular time, Justin Falk equalized the result. Brayden Schenn scored the winning goal in the 45th second of extra time for “Blues”.
Meanwhile, 23-year-old Swedish goaltender Dennis Hildeby saved 23 of 25 shots on goal to help the Toronto Maple Leafs win 4-2 (3-1, 1-1, 0-0) in his NHL debut on Thursday. ) to beat New Jersey “Devils” hockey players.
Max Pacioretti, Bobby McMann, Steven Lorenz and John Tavares each scored in the winning team, while Jesper Brat and Timo Maier scored for the hosts.
In another match, the league newcomers Utah Hockey Club won their second victory in two games, beating the New York “Islanders” team 5:4 (1:1, 1:0, 2:3, 1:0) in overtime.
The winning goal for the Utah club was scored by Dylan Ganter, who scored twice in this match, but overall, with four accurate shots, he is the league’s best sniper.
Barrett Hayton, Lawson Krause and Josh Douen also scored for the winners, while Antony Duclair had 1+1 for the home side, while Jean-Gabriel Pajot, Bo Horvath and Maksim Toropchenko each scored.
It has already been announced that the Columbus “Blue Jackets” team represented by the Latvian goalkeeper Elvjas Merzlikina and the Florida “Panthers” team of the defender Uvjas Balinskas experienced losses on Thursday.
The Blue Jackets played their first match of the season and lost 2-3 (0-1, 1-1, 1-1) to the visiting Minnesota Wild team, with Merzlikin making 23 of 26 shots. On the other hand, last season’s champion “Panthers” lost 1:3 (0:2, 1:0, 0:1) away to Ottawa “Senators”, the Latvian defender playing over 18 minutes and earning a negative efficiency coefficient of -1.