THREE FOR THREE
HARTMAN TALLIES HAT TRICK AS HAWKS WIN THIRD STRAIGHT
Rookie Ryan Hartman isn’t into style points. “A goal is a goal,” he said. He knows his job is more about grit, perseverance and hard work than anything else and ended up right where he should be Sunday night — at the right place at the right time.
Hartman turned a lucky bounce into a tiebreaking goal and parlayed his good fortune into a third- period hat trick — capped by two empty- net goals — that led the Blackhawks to a 5- 2 victory over the Nashville Predators before 21,822 at the United Center.
Hartman scored the tiebreaker at 11: 49 of the third period, when a shot by Richard Panik in front of Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne popped up in the air and off Hartman’s hip for a 3- 2 lead.
With Panik going between his legs for a shot on goal, Hartman was rushing the net from the right side and being defended by Mike Fisher. Adding to the confusion, the net was dislodged just as the puck crossed the goal line. Upon review, officials determined the net was dislodged after the puck crossed the goal line and that Hartman did not direct the puck into the net.
“It was just a battle in front,” Hartman said. “Panik made a good play at the net, and I don’t really know how it came to me. But I was trying to get to the net, and I just felt it go off my hip. So, a lucky one.”
Hartman will take it and so will the Hawks ( 26- 12- 5), who won their third consecutive game after a stretch of five losses in six games ( 1- 4- 1). Artemi Panarin and Niklas Hjalmarsson also scored. Patrick Kane had three assists. And Corey Crawford stopped 25 of 27 shots.
Hartman added two emptynet goals in the final 1: 14 for an odd hat trick — his first in the NHL — that he will take. He has 10 goals.
“It’s not really how you draw it up,’’ Hartman said, ‘‘ but they count. I don’t think anyone is going to remember [ how they went in] in a couple of days.”
“It was certainly a pretty remarkable way of scoring three goals in a short amount of time without really making a play on the goaltender,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “But he did some good things, and he’s been progressing. A good way to end the game.”
It’s worth noting that the Predators ( 17- 16- 7) were short- handed. Not only have they been without All- Star defenseman P. K. Subban for 11 games, but they also were missing forwards James Neal, Colin Wilson and Viktor Arvidsson, their second- leading scorer. The Hawks were playing their fourth game without centerMarcus Kruger.
Panarin gave the Hawks a 1- 0 lead with a particularly nasty one- timer from the left circle off a pass from Kane. It was Panarin’s 17th goal and 41st point.
The lead lasted 45 seconds, as a neutral- zone turnover led to Mattias Ekholm’s goal. Ekholm, taking a pass from Fisher, beat Crawford from the left circle.
Hjalmarsson gave the Hawks the lead when he took a pass from Kane and fired a shot from the point that went through an Artem Anisimov screen and past Rinne to give the Hawks a 2- 1 lead at 14: 04 of the first period.
It was Hjalmarsson’s fifth goal, the most he has scored in one season in eight years with the Hawks. Hjalmarsson has scored as many goals in 42 games this season as he scored in 163 games over the previous two seasons.