The Tampa Bay Lightning boast such an array of young forwards that Cedric Paquette doesn’t usually come to mind.
He made enough of an impression with his first career hat trick that he may be on the tip of more tongues, however. If nothing else, he probably won’t be anonymous to the Detroit Red Wings.
The first goal came about two minutes into the contest:
The second came in the waning moments of the first period:
Finally, he netted a hat trick showing great patience on this shorthanded odd-man rush:
Bishop on @Paquette18: "Who knew he had a shot like that?"
— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithNHL) January 30, 2015
More from Cooper on Paquette's hat trick: "It never gets old watching those hats fly over the wall. It’s a ton of fun." #TBLightning
— Bryan Burns (@BBurnsNHL) January 30, 2015
It wasn’t just his first hat trick ... it was also his first goal in quite some time.
Paquette on going 29 games w/o a goal until Tuesday: "It’s tough to accept, but I think I keep working hard and the goal came.”
— Bryan Burns (@BBurnsNHL) January 30, 2015
Update: The Lightning ended up scoring another goal to beat the Red Wings 5-1. The Montreal Canadiens won their game against the New York Rangers, making the top of the Atlantic Division quite the battle:
Lightning: 66 points, 31 wins, 29 regulation/OT wins in 50 games played
Canadiens: 65 points, 31 wins, 26 ROW in 47 GP
Red Wings: 65 points, 28 wins, 26 ROW in 49 GP
After playing the Blue Jackets in Tampa Bay on Saturday, the Lightning will enter a challenging February. They play every game against (mostly) tough Western Conference opponents with many of those games coming on the road.
That won’t be easy, but so far, the Lightning have passed most of their tests on the road to becoming a legitimate Eastern contender.