Boston Bruins forward Danton Heinen of Langley, British Columbia, scored his first career National Hockey League hat trick on Saturday. He achieved this with a 9-4 victory for the Bruins over the Montreal Canadiens at the Toronto Dominion Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.
Heinen’s first goal gave the Bruins a 3-2 lead with 55 seconds left in the first period. Matt Grzelcyk and Charlie McAvoy picked up the assists. Heinen gave the Bruins a 4-3 lead with 10:46 left in the second period. Jesper Boqvist and Hampus Lindholm got the assists. Then, in the third period, Heinen capped the scoring with a power play goal at 10:40 of the final frame. Morgan Geekie of Strathclair, Manitoba and Kevin Shattenkirk provided the assists.
Heinen was one of three Bruins with a multi-point game. Jake DeBrusk of Edmonton, Alberta and Brad Marchand of Halifax, Nova Scotia each had a goal and an assist for two points.
This season, Heinen scored eight goals and nine assists for 17 points in 37 games. He is a +11 with 18 penalty minutes, one power play point, two game-winning goals, 69 shots on goal, six faceoff wins, 24 blocked shots, 27 hits, 25 takeaways and eight giveaways. Heinen’s first game-winning goal of the season came on November 30 in the Bruins’ 3-0 win over the San Jose Sharks. Heinen scored at 1:39 of the second period against Matthew Poitras of Ajax, Ont., to open the scoring. Heinen’s second game-winning goal of the season came on December 9th in the Bruins’ 5-3 victory over the Arizona Coyotes. Heinen scored at 9:12 of the second period through Poitras and Trent Frederic. The goal gave the Bruins a 4-2 lead at the time.
With the win, the Bruins improved to a record of 28 wins, eight regulation losses and nine overtime losses, for a total of 65 points. They have the best record in the Eastern Conference.
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