Sunday's NHL roundup

November 26, 2018 at 6:02AM
Austin Watson (51) recorded his first NHL hat trick on Sunday night. He entered the game with just one goal this season.
Austin Watson (51) recorded his first NHL hat trick on Sunday night. He entered the game with just one goal this season. (Mark Humphrey · Associated Press/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Austin Watson had a difficult time remembering the last time he scored a hat trick — at any level.

"American Hockey League, maybe?" Watson said. "A couple of years now."

Watson, known as a grinder who is strong on the penalty kill, recorded his first career NHL hat trick Sunday night as Nashville defeated the Anaheim Ducks 5-2.

Watson, a 26-year-old right wing, became the fourth Predators player to record a hat trick this season, a franchise record. He was also the fifth NHL player to record a hat trick over the weekend.

Watson moved up to the first and second lines against Anaheim because of an undisclosed injury to center Kyle Turris.

Calgary 6, Arizona 1: Noah Hanifin and Mark Jankowski each scored twice for the visiting Flames. Calgary coach Bill Peters was hit in the left jaw with a puck early in the second period. He needed eight stitches and returned late in the period.

Tampa Bay 5, New Jersey 2: The host Lightning improved its record to 17-6-1, tops in the Eastern Conference. Tampa Bay has won three straight and five of six.

Chicago-Arizona trade

In a swap involving three former first-round draft picks, the Chicago Blackhawks traded Nick Schmaltz (No. 20 in 2014) to Arizona for Dylan Strome (No. 3 in 2015) and Brendan Perlini (No. 12 in 2014).

Schmaltz, a native of Madison, Wis., who played at the University of North Dakota, had 21 goals and 31 assists in 78 games last season. But the Blackhawks seemed to sour on his potential a bit with his lack of production so far this year.

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The "winners" have all been Turkeys, no matter the honor's name.

In this photo taken Monday, March 6, 2017, in San Francisco, released confidential files by The University of California of a sexual misconduct case, like this one against UC Santa Cruz Latin Studies professor Hector Perla is shown. Perla was accused of raping a student during a wine-tasting outing in June 2015. Some of the files are so heavily redacted that on many pages no words are visible. Perla is one of 113 UC employees found to have violated the system's sexual misconduct policies in rece