Cutter Gauthier Hat Trick Again as Ducks Beat Canucks 5-4

Cutter Gauthier is the first player in Ducks history with hat tricks in back-to-back games.

He scored three times Tuesday night in a 5-4 win over the Canucks at Rogers Arena, two days after his hat trick against the Senators. It was the third hat trick of his NHL career.

The first two goals came on the power play. Gauthier one-timed a Beckett Sennecke feed late in the first period to make it 2-1, and Leo Carlsson added a shorthanded goal early in the second. Gauthier then snapped one from the left circle at 18:25 of the second for a 4-2 lead.

He finished it four minutes into the third, wristing a shot past Kevin Lankinen from the slot to make it 5-2. Sennecke assisted on all three goals and finished with four assists, the first four-assist game of his career.

Gauthier has eight goals in his last three games. He has scored in only four games this season, and every one of them has been a multi-goal night. He is the second Duck with three straight multi-goal games, joining Paul Kariya in 2000-01.

The power play is a big reason why. Anaheim is 10 for 12 with the man advantage over its last three games, and Gauthier is the first player in NHL history with multiple power play goals in three straight games. The Ducks have scored 29 goals in their last five.

Vancouver made it interesting. Jake DeBrusk scored on the power play and again at 5-on-5 in the third to cut it to 5-4, and the Canucks pulled Lankinen with under two minutes left. They couldn’t find the tying goal and fell to 3-13-1.

The game also got chippy in the third period. Max Sasson collided with Laurent Brossoit and ended up fighting Ducks defenseman Noah Warren, and Sam Colangelo and Paul Cotter traded punches away from the puck. Watch the scrum:

The Ducks (7-7-1) stay on their Western Canada trip Thursday in Edmonton, then play in Calgary on Saturday.