Leo Carlsson makes Ducks franchise history with hat trick in loss to Flyers
Travis Sanheim had a goal and two assists as the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Ducks 6-3 on Friday night at Honda Center despite rookie Leo Carlsson‘s first career hat trick.
Carlsson, the second overall pick in June’s NHL draft, became the sixth-youngest NHL player with a three-goal game over the past 30 years at 18 years, 319 days. The forward has six goals and seven points in nine games. He completed his hat trick on a power play with 1:28 remaining.
He is the youngest player in the Ducks’ 30-year history to have a multigoal game and the third Ducks rookie to record a hat trick.
Coach Greg Cronin is behind the changed Ducks and their six-game winning streak, the latest a win Sunday to hand defending champion Vegas its first regulation loss.
“It’s cool, but obviously not the best game for the team,” Carlsson said. “Probably will be more happy about it tomorrow, but that’s a tough loss.”
Cam Atkinson had a goal and an assist for Philadelphia, which had dropped two straight and five of six. Owen Tippett helped put the game away with two third-period goals, including an empty-netter.
Sean Couturier and Louie Belpedio also scored for the Flyers, who will play the Kings at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday night. Samuel Ersson stopped 35 shots, and Joel Farabee added two assists.
“We were there most of the night. I thought we had a shot mentality and also trying to get pucks there. Both teams probably had about 30 chances apiece,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “I love the offense that we brought, but we also were beat up the ice quite a bit tonight. One of the few games where we gave up a ton of odd-man rushes, which you can’t be excited about.”
Carter Hart was originally slated to be back in net for the Flyers but was declared out after Friday afternoon’s skate due to illness.
“It was a little bit a different type of game than I’ve been playing,” Ersson said. “I got a little bit more involved, a little bit more shots, so it’s kind of a nice game really for me — and especially the way things went last time we had to face these guys.”
Lukas Dostal made 30 saves for the Ducks, who have lost their last two after a six-game winning streak. Alex Killorn had two assists.
Sanheim leads the Flyers with 14 points and had his third multipoint game of the season. The defenseman assisted on Atkinson’s goal at 12:31 of the first period to give Philadelphia a 2-0 lead before scoring his second of the season at 7:39 of the third to make it 4-1.
Couturier put in a rebound in front for his third goal of the season after Dostal made a pad save on Egor Zamula’s shot from outside the left faceoff circle at 4:57 of the first.
Atkinson doubled the lead eight minutes later when he tipped in Sanheim’s shot from the point.
Belpedio beat Dostal on his glove side with a wrist shot 2:33 into the second period to expand Philadelphia’s advantage to 3-0.
Carlsson put the Ducks on the board at 13:15 of the second with his first power-play goal of the night when he put the puck past Errson with a shot from the left faceoff circle.
Carlsson brought the Ducks to 4-2 after getting a feed from Killorn on an odd-man rush.
“I mean, he could have had five goals, really. Missed a couple, but he’s a star player,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. “He’s got a pace to his game for a big guy that you don’t see a lot in this league. And obviously he’s got terrific hands and he’s confident, so it was nice to see that. He deserves it, and he’s just going to keep getting better.”
Up next for the Ducks: Host the San Jose Sharks on Sunday.
