The Washington Capitals were looking for revenge against the Anaheim Ducks last night after their meeting last month, and boy did they get it. Despite the Ducks getting on the board first, the Capitals went on to score five unanswered goals to make it 5-1. They let Anaheim back in it for a bit to bring the score to 5-4, but the Caps finished them off with two empty netters. Although Alex Ovechkin’s first goal of the game was the eventual game winner, it was rookie Justin Sourdif who fueled the Caps to victory with his first career hat trick. Let’s take a closer look at the third goal that capped it off…
The Capitals’ new second line of Connor McMichael-Justin Sourdif-Ryan Leonard was clicking the entire game, but they saved some of their best for their fourth and final goal of the night—Sourdif’s third to complete the hatty. The Caps caught Anaheim in a bad change and ended up with a four-on-two with the second line plus Trevor van Riemsdyk. Sourdif was the one to carry the puck from Washington’s own zone across the blue line into the Ducks’ end of the ice, and then he dropped the puck to a waiting TvR so he could continue driving towards the net. TvR kickstarted a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing play by quickly passing the puck to McMichael, who then passed it to Leonard who fed it to a waiting Sourdif.
The play was set up perfectly, and Sourdif bookended it with his zone entry to start it and a tap-in from the crease to end it. Fun fact: it took Sourdif just 11:34 of game time to score his hat trick. Per Capitals PR, Sourdif is the ninth Caps rookie to score a hat trick and the first since Ovechkin on January 13, 2006 against the Ducks. Make sure you don’t miss the celly after Sourdif’s third goal, because it truly was one for the books: