NHL: Nico Hischier scores his first hat trick

Nico Hischier (25 years old) has repeated it dozens of times: he pays as much interest to his statistics sheet as to a wooden Koho standby gathering dust in his garage in Naters.

Because the destiny of his team, in this case the New Jersey Devils in the NHL championship, is more important than his personal fundraising.

On the night of Monday to Tuesday, after a regular season game won 5-2 against Nashville at the Prudential Center, the Valais center player nevertheless affirmed that he was going to “remember this match for the rest of his life.”

And for good reason: the Swiss captain of the Devils achieved a natural hat trick (three consecutive goals scored in the same period).

He first exploited a pass from Appenzell winger Timo Meier (28) to allow his team to take the advantage (2-1 in the 24th minute).

He then thwarted the vigilance of Finnish goalkeeper Juuse Saros in the numerical advantage (3-1 in the 31st minute).

He finally lit the lamp on a breakaway shortly before the end of the second third (4-1 in the 37th minute).

New Jersey’s first pick in the 2017 draft, Nico Hischier calculated: “It took me seven and a half years to score a hat-trick. It’s incredible.”

The former HC Visp junior took his hats off during his 475th regular season match in the most competitive league in the world.

He is also only the fourth professional in the history of the Devils to achieve a natural hat trick after the Slovak Peter Stastny in 1991, the Quebecer Stéphane Richer in 1993 and the American Brian Gionta in 2006.

Since the start of the 2024-2025 campaign, he has had a record of 24 points (including 13 goals) in as many starts.