Austria’s ice hockey star Michael Grabner led the New York Rangers to a 5-1 home win over the Carolina Hurricanes with the fifth hat-trick of his NHL career. The 30-year-old striker from Villach scored 2-1 (22nd), 3-1 (58th) and 4-1 (59th) goals on Friday evening. His second and third goals were empty net goals. Grabner now holds at 13 goals of the season.
“If you get such a chance, you have to take it, especially if you’re just leading with a goal. It is always a great relief to lead with two goals,”Grabner emphasized after the match over his second goal,”He got the opportunity and made the best of it. He has enormous speed and always finds the gap to hit the empty goal. He’s our key player,”said Canadian rangers-head coach Alain Vigneault, praising his match winner.
With already six “empty net goals” this season, the Carinthian is the clear number one in the league. In the “even strength goals”classification, which only takes into account the number two goals, Grabner, who is not used in powerplay, is currently the number two with 13 goals – together with the Russian superstar Alexander Ovetschkin (Washington Capitals) and the Canadian Mark Stone (Ottawa Senators). The front runner is the 24-year-old Russian Nikita Kutscherow (Tampa Bay Lightning) with 14.