3 takeaways: Hertl hits milestone with hat trick in Knights’ win — PHOTOS

The city of Las Vegas may soon run out of hats, with Tomas Hertl and Pavel Dorofeyev being the culprits.

Lids rained down on the ice of T-Mobile Arena for the third straight game. Hertl is responsible for two of those.

“A lot of hats,” Hertl said. “Hopefully me and Pav get some money from the show because that’s a lot of hats.”

Hertl recorded his second hat trick of the season, the third straight three-goal game to take place at the Golden Knights’ home arena, as they defeated the Detroit Red Wings 6-3 on Saturday.

Hertl finding the back of the net three times comes two days after linemate Dorofeyev completed his second hat trick Thursday against the Boston Bruins.

Hertl also had a hat trick March 9 against the Los Angeles Kings.

“It’s always nice to score a hat trick, but more happy I am about a big win,” Hertl said.

The goals put Hertl at the 30-goal mark for the first time since the 2021-22 season and the third time in his career. Two of the goals came on the power play, giving him a Knights-record 14 goals on the man advantage.

Center Jack Eichel had a goal and three assists to reach 600 career points, and captain Mark Stone had a goal and two assists to give the Knights (41-20-8) consecutive wins to start their three-game homestand.

Goaltender Adin Hill made 28 saves for his seventh win in his past nine starts (7-1-1).

The power play was both teams’ trusty companion Saturday.

Both of Detroit’s goals came on the man advantage, starting with right wing Lucas Raymond’s shot that deflected off defenseman Alex Pietrangelo’s stick to open the scoring at 4:47 of the first.

Hertl’s first goal at 11:47 tied it 1-1, then Hertl deflected a point shot from defenseman Brayden McNabb at 16:32 to give the Knights a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Center Nicolas Roy scored with 2.3 seconds left in the period to give the Knights a 3-1 lead.

Red Wings right wing Patrick Kane cut the lead back to one with a power-play goal at 1:49 of the second before Stone pushed it to 4-2 at 7:07.

Hertl completed the hat trick at 8:02 on the power play on the same play as his first goal — off a pass from Stone with Hertl cutting to the front of the net — to make it 5-2.

“That’s by design,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “You got to move him around if they’re going to take him away (at the bumper). They gave Stoney all kinds of time in the drop-off.”

The season didn’t get off to the start Hertl envisioned. Though he was effective on the power play, he had 10 goals through his first 39 games.

His 20 in the past 30 ties him with Dallas Stars right wing Jason Robertson and Edmonton Oilers center Leon Draisaitl for the most in the league since Jan. 7.

This time of year is predicated on scoring goals and doing so in the tough areas. Hertl is checking off both those boxes at the right time.

“It’s nice to be hot,” Hertl said. “But I’d rather be hotter in three weeks.”

Three takeaways from the win:

1. Timely goal

Roy’s late goal came at an opportune time.

Defenseman Nic Hague had a goal come off the board with 1:51 left in the first because right wing Keegan Kolesar was offsides on the play, keeping the score 2-1.

Roy’s goal re-established that two-goal lead, this time for good. Roy got behind the defense for a partial breakaway and deked by Detroit goaltender Cam Talbot for his 10th goal of the season.

Roy wasn’t even meant to be on the ice for a scoring opportunity. He was meant to help on the defensive-zone draw and get off the ice.

Instead, he found the back of the net.

“That’s kind of crappy. You’re out there for the D-zone draw, so those aren’t optimal times. You want the O-zone draw, and he ends up scoring anyway,” Cassidy said. “Good for him because he deserves a break like that every once in a while.”

2. Eichel hits 600

The career year for Eichel continues, and the milestones keep piling up.

The four-point night gave Eichel a new career high of 86 points, surpassing the 82 he totaled in the 2018-19 season with the Buffalo Sabres.

Eichel, who is still on pace for a 100-point season, became the fifth player from the 2015 draft class to reach 600 points, joining Connor McDavid, Mitch Marner, Mikko Rantanen and Sebastian Aho.

“It’s a cool milestone,” Eichel said. “I’ve played with some amazing players. You’ve got to look around at the people in this room, people I’ve played with previously. I’ve been the benefactor of some good hockey players. Just trying to continue to get better every day. That stuff usually comes organically.”

3. Samsonov starts Sunday

Goaltender Ilya Samsonov will get the start in Sunday’s second leg of the back-to-back against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Cassidy said the plan was to split the goalies this weekend. Hill will get a rest after making his fourth start in the past five appearances.

Samsonov has lost his past two starts. He will battle Lightning star netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy. Tampa Bay is coming off a 6-4 loss Saturday to the Utah Hockey Club.

Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.