On this special night, there were a number of other milestones Marner reached.
— He became only the seventh player in NHL history to score a natural hat trick in the Stanley Cup Final. The others: Sam Reinhart (Game 6, 2025); Gordie Howe (Game 5, 1955); Ted Lindsay (Game 2, 1955), Sid Smith (Game 2, 1949), Maurice Richard (Game 2, 1944), and Newsy Lalonde (Game 2, 1919).
— With 28 points, Marner surpassed Frank Mahovlich (27 points; 14 goals, 13 assists with Montreal, 1971) for the most playoff points by a player during his first season with a franchise, having come over in a sign-and-trade from the Toronto Maple Leafs on July 1.
— He became the first Vegas player to record multiple four-point games in a single postseason.
— He matched the fourth-most points by a player through the first three games of a Stanley Cup Final with seven, trailing only Foyston (nine in 1919), Alf Skinner (eight in 1918) and Wayne Gretzky (eight in 1988).
Ironically, after all that, his missed penalty shot in the third period almost proved to be the turning point in the game. Somehow he did not realize the Hurricanes had changed goalies, putting in Brandon Bussi for Frederik Andersen.
Keep in mind that Bussi catches right-handed, Andersen left-handed.
“On the penalty shot, I was pretty exhausted,” he said. “Saying that, I did not notice they switched their goalie. And I didn’t notice he’s offhanded as well.”
After that, Carolina scored four times in the remainder of the period, tying the game at 4-4 and forcing overtime.
In the end, Shea Theodore’s winner in the second overtime saved the day for Vegas.
But it wouldn’t have even gotten there if not for Marner’s record night.
