Leon Draisaitl led the Edmonton Oilers to an important victory in the fight for the playoffs in the North American professional league NHL.
The German ice hockey star scored three times in the 4-0 (1-0, 2-0, 1-0) at the Nashville Predators. “I think sometimes you just have a team that seems to work a little better against than others,” said Draisaitl after his second hat-trick of the season and sixth of his NHL career.
With now 54 goals this season, he closed the scoring list somewhat to Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs (58 goals), who exceptionally went empty-handed in the 7-3 win over the Washington Capitals.
Also meet Stützle and Seider
In general, it was a consistently successful evening for the German NHL professionals. The in-form Tim Stützle scored the winning goal in his Ottawa Senators 3-2 win at the Boston Bruins and prepared the other two goals. For the 20-year-old it was the second three-point game in a row and the seventh in a row with at least one goal contribution.
Moritz Seider gave the Detroit Red Wings a 3-0 lead at the Carolina Hurricanes with his sixth goal of the season. Nico Sturm (3:1 with the Colorado Avalanche against the New Jersey Devils) and Lukas Reichel (5:4 after a penalty shoot-out with the Chicago Blackhawks against the San Jose Sharks) also achieved victories.
Two other teams qualified for the playoffs, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Tampa Bay Lightning.