"Here come the sock penguins" is not something you hear every night.
— NHL (@NHL) March 1, 2016
It's Patric Hornqvist's first NHL hat trick.https://t.co/6FrLfydL2E
It was a hat trick for Patric.
What made the feat even more memorable was that it came on Sock Penguin Night in Pittsburgh, as Penguins winger Patric Hornqvist found the back of the net against the Arizona Coyotes off feeds from Sidney Crosby, Chris Kunitz, and Evgeni Malkin, sending both hats and plenty of stuffed "sock penguins" over the glass in celebration.
The third goal gave the Penguins a 4-0 lead midway through the second period.
Hornqvist has the Penguins' first ever hat trick on Leap Day.
— Seth Rorabaugh (@emptynetters) March 1, 2016
They've given up two Leap Day HTs. Ted Irvine (1976) and Gary Roberts (1996)
With the first hat trick of his career, the 29-year-old Hornqvist now has 15 goals on the season, and 10 in 17 career games against the Coyotes.
"I think (I) had almost 20 games with two goals and I couldn't get the third one," Hornqvist said, according to Seth Rorabaugh of the Post-Gazette. "It was nice to get one tonight."
His three-goal performance continues an impressive run across the NHL:
4 Hat tricks in the past 3 days... 2 Natural Hat Tricks(NSH Forsberg & OTT Zibanejad) and 2 regular Hat Tricks(ANA Perry & PIT Hornqvist)
— SiriusXM NHL Network (@SiriusXMNHL) March 1, 2016
