Bolts Fall to Sharks, Despite St. Louis’ 4 Goal Game
On the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Saturday’s matinée game at Tampa Bay Times Forum, team captain Martin St. Louis achieved a feat which has not been done since 1992 when he posted a four goal game. It’s been a record held by Chris Kontos since he did it at the Lightning’s inaugural game against the Blackhawks.
For St. Louis, three of those goals came in the first period alone, with the fourth coming early in the second period. Fans were on their feet as soon as the announcement was made that captain had a hat trick and play was stopped so hats could be tossed onto the ice, one of those hats belonging to St. Louis’ son, who could be seen sitting in the stands with his grandmother and brother.
Despite the feat made by Marty, the team still fell to San Jose in regulation. Matt Nieto opened the scoring for the Sharks halfway through the opening frame, two minutes later Martin St. Louis scored his first of four goals, a goal that was followed by Patrick Marleau’s twenty-first of the season. Marty gave the Bolts a lead, but that did not satisfy Joe Pavelski who got a one period hat trick of his own.
While these duelling hat tricks are not as memorable as the one seen by Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin from the 2009 playoff series, but when it’s taken into account that both hat tricks happened in one period, this will be a game memorable to Sharks and Bolts fans.
