The Detroit Red Wings and New York Islanders traded goals back-and-forth ad nauseam on Friday night in what was one of the most thrilling games of the season.
Mathew Barzal added to his campaign for the Calder trophy, notching his third five point game of the season with five apples in the Islanders 7-6 overtime win over the Wings. Brock Nelson recorded a hat trick in the big win.
The Islanders found themselves down three goals with six and a half minutes to go in the third. After Tyler Bertuzzi was assessed a game misconduct for swimming his stick at Cal Clutterbuck, the Isles went to work on their prolific power play and notched not one, not two, not three, but four goals on the man advantage.
The Burnaby, B.C. product became the first rookie in NHL history to record two five-assist performances in the same season, and became the first rookie in 100 years to notch his third five-point performance in a season.
He joined some pretty elite company with multiple 5-assist performances in one season.
Barzal now has 58 points in 56 games, and is separating himself from the rest of the rookie pack, including Canucks rookie sniper Brock Boeser. Boeser is now 11 points behind Barzal and is currently out day-to-day with a hand injury.
Not bad for a player that was passed over 15 times in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. Only Connor McDavid has a higher points per game rate out of the entire draft class.
