Claire Dalton of Toronto, Ontario, recorded her first career Professional Women’s Hockey League hat trick on Saturday. She achieved this feat with Montreal’s 6-3 victory over Ottawa at the Verdun Auditorium in Verdun, Quebec.
Dalton’s first goal was the only goal of the second period. It was a shorthanded marker from Kati Tabin of Winnipeg, Manitoba, with one minute and 48 seconds left, giving Montreal a 2-1 lead at that point. Dalton then scored a game-winning goal to give Montreal a 4-2 lead over Canadian Olympic champions Erin Ambrose of Keswick, Ontario and Marie-Philip Poulin of Beauceville, Quebec, and then gave Montreal a 5-3 lead over Poulin and Canadian Olympic gold Medalist Laura Stacey of Mississauga, Ontario, with four minutes and 35 seconds left in the third period.
Dalton was one of two Canadian players in Montreal to score. The other was Ann-Sophie Bettez of Sept-Iles, Quebec. Three Canadians against Montreal played a game with several points. Poulin had three assists and Stacey had two assists. Poulin won a gold medal for Canada Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics And 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Poulin, Stacey and Ambrose won a gold medal for Canada 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
Overall, Dalton scored three goals in four shots against Ottawa and was +3. In 2024, she recorded five goals and one assist for six points. She is a +5 with 17 shots on goal, a game-winning goal, a power play goal and a shorthanded goal. The power play goal came from Tabin and Leah Lum at 3:41 of the first period in Montreal’s 2-1 win over Minnesota on February 18.
The win puts Montreal in first place in the PWHL standings with 24 points. They have three points more than second-place Minnesota.
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