Celebrini completes hat trick in OT, continues to rewrite NHL record book
SAN JOSE – Macklin Celebrini joined a list of some of the NHL’s greatest players on Tuesday night — and continued to rewrite the league’s record book in the process — as he scored at the 2:52 mark of overtime to complete his third career hat trick and give the San Jose Sharks a wild 3-2 win over the Utah Mammoth.
With the Sharks on a power play, Celebrini took a pass from William Eklund, stickhandled the puck near the top of the circles, and fired a shot past Utah goalie Vitek Vanecek for his 13th goal of the season.
With the goal, Celebrini became the fourth teenager in NHL history to reach the 30-point mark in 20 or fewer games of a season, joining Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Sidney Crosby, who are first, eighth, and ninth, respectively, in all-time scoring.
“It’s cool, but it’s the first time I’m really hearing about it,” Celebrini said of joining that list, “and I don’t really want to hear about it.”
Right after the goal, Celebrini skated and pointed toward Sharks goalie Yaroslav Askarov, who made a big stop in overtime and finished with 24 saves as the Sharks won for the fifth time in the last seven games.
Still, Celebrini became the first teenager in NHL history to score all of his team’s goals with a hat trick — capped by an overtime winner — in one game.
“He’s special,” Sharks defenseman Vincent Desharnais said. “I think everyone in here and everyone in this building kind of sees how special he is as a player, and as a human being as well.
“He always wants to get better every day. I’m sure, next skate, he’s gonna be one of the first guys on the ice to work on something else. It’s impressive to see, and it inspires everyone to want to follow him.”
Celebrini also scored at even-strength at the 1:47 and 5:58 marks of the first period for his 11th and 12th goals of the season, giving the Sharks an early 2-0 lead. But San Jose allowed two third-period goals to JJ Peterka, including the tying goal with 2:51 left in regulation, as his shot from 40 feet away got between Askarov’s upper body and left arm to tie the game 2-2.
Askarov has now won five of his last six starts. His efforts, along with Celebrini’s, have allowed the Sharks (9-8-3) to reach the 20-game mark with 21 points, just two points out of a playoff spot, as a challenging homestand continues with games against the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday, the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, and the Boston Bruins on Sunday.
Last season, after 20 games, the Sharks were 6-10-4 and five points out of a playoff spot.
“I think coming into this year, all of us wanted to take that next step as a team,” Celebrini said. “This is a game we probably would have lost last year, so I think it just shows the steps we’re taking. It wasn’t good to give up those two goals, but I think it’s definitely the steps we want to take.”
Coming into Tuesday, Askarov has been the NHL’s best goalie over the past two weeks with a .965 save percentage and a 4-1-0 record in his last five games.
According to Sportradar, Askarov is the first goalie since the 1955-56 season, when the NHL began tracking such statistics, to have a save percentage that high over a five-game stretch without a shutout.
After Peterka scored at the 9:25 mark of the third period to cut the Sharks’ lead to 2-1, the Mammoth thought they had tied the game with 6:22 left in regulation. But it was ruled on the ice that Utah’s Dylan Guenther impaired Yaroslav Askarov’s ability to play his position in the crease before the puck entered the net, a ruling upheld after a coach’s challenge by the Mammoth.
The Sharks were coming off a 1-2-0 road trip that finished with losses to the Calgary Flames and Seattle Kraken, and they didn’t score a 5-on-5 goal in any of the three games.
Celebrini solved that problem with a lightning-fast start against the Mammoth.
After the Sharks created a turnover inside their own zone, Will Smith started a rush the other way and got the puck to Celebrini, who carried it into the Utah zone. He then got the puck to Philipp Kurashev, who retrieved it behind the Mammoth net.
Kurashev then sent it out front to Smith, who snapped a pass across the slot to Celebrant. The 19-year-old took a moment before he fired it past Vanecek for his 11th of the season, 1:47 into the game.
Just 4:11 later, Celebrini broke up a Mammoth pass inside the Sharks’ to set up another rush. Sharks winger Collin Graf picked up the loose puck and sent it ahead to Celebrini, who went in alone on Vanecek and beat his former San Jose teammate five-hole for a 2-0 San Jose lead.
Celebrini’s second goal represented his 29th point, the most for any Sharks player through the first 20 games of the season.
Before Tuesday, Celebrini was third in the NHL with 27 points in 19 games, which was also the third-most ever by a teenager through 19 games, trailing only Crosby (30 in 2006-07) and Gretzky (30 in 1980-81).
“That last goal, obviously, is a great shot, deception,” said Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky, who also credited Alexander Wennberg for his screen on Vanecek. “Something we talked about this morning. But Mack was obviously special tonight.”