Three Thoughts: Sens win in Detroit as Joseph and Sogaard shine
Mathieu Joseph's hat-trick, Mads Sogaard's first NHL win and a pair of Michigan natives stole the headlines Friday, as Three Thoughts details.
Sogaard wins NHL debut
Friday night was not only a huge moment for Mads Sogaard, but for Danish hockey.
The 6'7" goaltender collected his first NHL win in his NHL debut as he stopped 27 shots in a 5-2 victory over Detroit.
"It's something I will never forget," Sogaard said. "This is what I've worked for my entire life."
The 21-year-old is just the second Danish goaltender in NHL history to win a game after Frederik Andersen (259 wins). Furthermore, he's just the 17th Danish player in NHL history and the third to suit up for the Sens after Mikkel Boedker and Peter Regin.
"My brother is a diehard Sens fans and was years before I got drafted here," Sogaard said. "He was very very excited and honestly more nervous than I was. I'm really excited to give him a call.
"It was a really special night."
Sogaard was selected 37th overall in 2019 out of the WHL's Medicine Hat Tigers where he won 40 games over two seasons. He spent the first half of the 2020-21 season in his native Denmark before he joined the Belleville Senators and went a perfect 7-0-0 to close out the season. This season in the AHL, Sogaard is 16-13-1 with a 2.87 GAA and a .906 save percentage.
"He gets his first start, his first win and he looked so calm for a young guy," Sens head coach D.J. Smith said. "He's just so big and some [pucks] just hit him … as he gets older and really learns the position you've got to be excited for what he's going to bring to this organization."
With his victory Friday, Sogaard becomes the 34th goaltender in franchise history to win a game. He is just the fourth player to win in his NHL debut with the team after Mike Brodeur, Brian Elliott and Jani Hurme.
Joseph scores first career hat-trick
It was a career night for Mathieu Joseph.
In just his fifth game with the Senators, the 25-year-old recorded his first career NHL hat-trick and tallied the first four-point game of his NHL career.
"It's not every day you can do that in the NHL," Joseph said of scoring a hat-trick.
Joseph's first point of the night came on the game's opening goal of the game as he fed Austin Watson in the slot where he scored shorthanded. But it was the third period where Joseph took over and it may well have been a penalty he took that motivated him.
He was penalized with eight seconds left in the second period for hooking Dylan Larking that gave Detroit a brief 5-on-3 power play. The Sens managed to kill both penalties off, aided by a Lucas Raymond tripping penalty 49 seconds into the third, and had the lead moments later on a Josh Norris power play goal at 2:25.
Seventy-one seconds later, Joseph made it 3-1 with his first goal for Ottawa as he banged in a puck at the top of the crease off of Tyler Ennis' setup. The Laval, QC., native made It 4-1 at 13:19 as on an odd-man rush he kept the puck and shot low past Alex Nedeljkovic before he completed the hat-trick at 16:05 with an empty-net goal.
"I probably missed six or seven shots at the empty-net from my blue line this morning so I wasn't very confident about that shot," Joseph said with a laugh. "It was a big team effort. The coaches putting me on the ice at the end of games like that [shows] a lot of confidence from them and it helped my game for sure."
Joseph is the fifth Senator to score a hat-trick this season after Drake Batherson (Oct. 25 vs. Washington), Zach Sanford (Nov. 22 vs. Colorado), Brady Tkachuk (Dec. 11 vs. Tampa Bay) and Tyler Ennis (Jan. 25 vs. Buffalo).
It was the 11th time in franchise history a player had scored a hat-trick in one period and Joseph is the ninth different player to achieve that feat.
Michigan men shine
Playing in their home state of Michigan, Josh Norris and Austin Watson each found the scoresheet last night.
Watson buried his fourth goal of the season, and the fifth shorthanded goal of his career, in the first period while Norris hammered home a one-timer on the power play for his 27th goal of the season.
"He skated, again he scores and he breaks the game open for us," Smith said of Norris. "He continues to be a legitimate NHL player that continues to get better and better. His shot and his scoring continues to help us."
In the ninth game against the Red Wings in his career, Watson, a native of Ann Arbor, scored for the first time against Detroit. Norris, who hails from Oxford, also scored his first career goal against his hometown team in just his second game versus the Red Wings. It was the first time in his NHL career he has played in Detroit.
"[I have] lots of family and friends in the stands and I'm excited to play in front of them," Norris said Friday morning. "It's going to be a fun night."
Norris' goal Friday was his 14th of the season on the power play as he moved into a tie for fourth place in the NHL in that category.
