Recap: Deslauriers' Natural Hat Trick Leads Ducks to 5-2 Win Over Ottawa

The fourth-line winger known more for his pugilism than his scoring prowess reeled off a natural hat trick in the first 12 minutes of the opening period to propel the Ducks to a 5-2 victory over the visiting Ottawa Senators tonight at Honda Center.

Deslauriers' three goals on three shots came in a span of just 9:04 to give the Ducks an early 4-0 lead. The 29-year-old vet had only had a pair of two-goal games in his career prior to tonight (both during the 2017-18 season with Montreal), and had just 28 goals in 374 NHL games.

"I don't know if I've scored three goals in practice," Deslauriers joked in the postgame TV interview.

"Just scoring a goal for me is something special," he added. "It's pretty weird. It's a first for me. I don't think even when I was a younger kid I scored more than one or two goals. It's special."

His hat trick came in the opening 11:49 of the game, bettering the previous record of 12:58 set by Selanne on November 10, 1997 vs. San Jose. It was the third hat trick in Ducks history to be scored in the first period and the ninth natural hat trick in club history.

"I just found out it was the quickest one," Deslauriers said. "That's a plus. Often, I'm not a guy that takes credit for anything. You can look at the goals. Two great passes from [Carter] Rowney. As a line, we played good. On the third one, just a faceoff win and a lucky bounce."

It marked the fastest three goals from the start of a game in the NHL since March 30, 2013, when Taylor Hall of Edmonton scored three in 7:53 vs. Vancouver. It was also the fifth-fastest NHL hat trick from the start of a game since 1990.

"Everybody on that bench has probably never been more happy for a guy on their team than what occurred tonight in the first period," said Ducks teammate David Backes. "If you could hand out goals to guys on the team that deserve them, it's a guy like Des. He does all the hard stuff. He's willing to stick up for his teammates, fight, scrum, get space for other guys and make sure the opponent's on their heels. What a special moment to be a part of. These are the moments that you remember. They make the game special. A guy like that, he's talking about maybe not having one of those in his career - lifetime - and to do it in the NHL in 12 minutes of work in the first period, that was special."

The win gave the Ducks a 5-2-1 record in the last eight games with their next test coming tomorrow night vs. St. Louis, the makeup game for the postponed February 11 contest.

Anaheim had set the tone early with two goals in the game's first three minutes. The Ducks earned an early power play and took quick advantage when Rickard Rakell shuttled the puck into the slot and Jakob Silfverberg tipped it under the bar. It was the 21st of the year for Silfverberg, who had a pair of goals two night ago vs. Minnesota.

Video: OTT@ANA: Silfverberg tips home PPG to open scoring

From there it was the Nic Deslauriers Show, as he made it a 2-0 game 43 seconds after the Silfverberg goal by taking in a feed from linemate Carter Rowney and sending it top corner.

Video: OTT@ANA: Deslauriers goes top shelf to double lead

"Des does a lot of heavy lifting for this team," said Ducks coach Dallas Eakins. "He's first to the rink every morning. His work ethic is out of this world. To see a guy get rewarded like that scoring goals when that's not something he's known for, it makes for a great night. The guys were so excited for him on the bench. That was probably the biggest smile I've seen from Des, as well. We're really proud of him. It's awesome he made history with this organization. He surpassed some fairly good players."

Deslauriers got his second one with 8:43 left in the period, going to one knee to one-time a Rowney dish inside the left post.

Video: OTT@ANA: Deslauriers whips home second goal of game

Less than a minute later came the remarkable moment, as Deslauriers one-timed a shot from off the faceoff that deflected off the mask of Ottawa goalie Marcus Hogberg and tumbled into the net. Almost immediately hats came raining down from the Honda Center stands as Deslauriers soaked in the loud roar.

Video: OTT@ANA: Deslauriers scores off draw for hat trick

"When I scored two [earlier in my career], it was just luck," Deslauriers said. "It happened to me once maybe two years ago. It were those feelings I had to shoot the puck. It might take me another five games to put a puck on net. I don't know why it happened, but I'm happy."

The Ducks got their fifth of the game halfway through the second on just their ninth shot, a backdoor tap-in from Rakell off a nifty Max Jones feed.

Video: OTT@ANA: Rakell taps home a nifty pass on power play

Relatively quietly, Ryan Miller had a number of big stops among his 40 on the night in earning the win while John Gibson remains out with a lower body injury. .