Flyers Hope Hat Trick Gives Brayden Schenn ‘extra Confidence'

Goals had been hard to come by as of late for Flyers center Brayden Schenn.
 
Schenn came into Saturday’s 4-2 win against the Stars with four goals on the season. His score against the Blackhawks on Dec. 3 was his only goal in the last 13 games.
 
So naturally, Schenn recorded the second hat trick of his career Saturday (see story). His last one, which was also the Flyers’ last hat trick, came on Feb. 29, 2016, last season against Calgary. He’s the first Flyer to have consecutive hat tricks for the team since Scott Hartnell had two in the same month back in December 2008.
 
All three of Schenn's goals came on the power play. The final goal, which came with 2:15 left in the game, helped extend the Flyers’ win streak to eight games — their longest streak since 2002.
 
“It’s obviously nice scoring goals and stuff like that,” Schenn said, “but when it comes in a winning effort, coming from behind again, you know it’s nice and we’ll hopefully keep the streak going.”
 
Coming off a one goal, three assist game in Thursday night’s win against the Oilers, left winger Jakub Voracek had a hand in all three of Schenn’s goals. All three power-play goals looked similar, with Voracek getting the puck somewhere on the left side of the net and feeding it to Schenn in the middle in front of the net.
 
The first goal came with less than three minutes left in the first period. Defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere swung the puck to Voracek at the top right, and Voracek shot the puck toward the front of the net. Schenn got the tip of his stick on the puck to deflect it through Wayne Simmonds' legs, past Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen and into the net.
 
On the next goal, Voracek fed Schenn from a lower position on the left side of the net. Schenn, who had cleared some space for himself in front of the net, once again finished the play by deflecting it out of the air.
 
“I’ve been bugging him for some high tips lately, so he got me on two tonight,” Schenn said. 
 
The third score was a little bit of luck, as Voracek’s stick broke as he tried to slap a shot on net. The puck bounced toward Schenn, who had a big target to finish off the hat trick with Lehtonen out of position. 
 
“It’s nothing new for us really,” Schenn said. “[Voracek]’s been great all year for us, him and [Claude Giroux], and 'Ghost' who shredded whoever was up top. They make it happen for us and it means just trying to get the rebounds, and that’s really all there is to it.”
 
Schenn also won seven of eight faceoffs Saturday. He tossed the gloves and fought Dallas defenseman Stephen Johns in the second period to defend rookie Travis Konecny after a hard hit.
 
Dave Hakstol said those are the kinds of contributions Schenn has been making even when he’s not scoring goals.
 
“He’s done a lot of little things really well,"  Hakstol said. 

“You look at most nights it starts in the faceoff dot. Again, tonight he was outstanding in the faceoff dot. … That doesn’t go unnoticed. Scoring goals, obviously, is huge. It helps us win the hockey game. What he did coming in and he had a great fight stepping in for one of his teammates, those are the types of things that you really build that team chemistry with.”
 
Schenn scored a career-high 23 goals last season after tallying 17 and 16 goals in the two years prior.
 
He looked poised to be a scoring threat once again at the start of the season, tallying two goals in the team’s first five games. In the Flyers’ next 21 contests, Schenn scored just two more.
 
Voracek said he believes Saturday’s hat trick could get Schenn back to his scoring ways.

“It’s good to see,” Voracek said. “It’s going to give him extra confidence. He’s a goal scorer. He knows where to stand. You know when he gets confident, he’s very dangerous.”

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