Patrice Bergeron’s Patience Pays Off Against Senators, Tallies First Career Hat Trick in Bruins’ Win

BOSTON — Patrice Bergeron had waited more than seven years to get his first NHL hat trick, so what’s a few more minutes?

Tuesday night at the Garden, Bergeron scored an unassisted goal 3:33 into the first and added another at 2:50 of the second. Then, at 14:07 of the middle frame, Bergeron appeared to finally collect the hat trick with a deflection in front of the net after Brad Marchand threw the puck out from the left corner.

The hats rained down from the sold-out Garden and Bergeron even picked out a keepsake from the pile.

There was just one problem. Marchand’s pass never reached Bergeron. It went in off the skate of Ottawa defenseman Sergei Gonchar, and the scoring was changed to credit Marchand with the goal.

It didn’t matter though, as there was no denying Bergeron on this night. He came back in the third and ripped a wrister short-side from the left slot at 5:04, bringing down another shower of hats and putting the finishing touches on an impressive 6-0 win over Ottawa.

“Everyone’s leaving the building with no hats on, so yeah, I guess I wanted to get it, because I guess everyone threw their hats on the ice,” Bergeron said after pushing his season total to 13 goals with five tallies in the last three games.

Bergeron also had some peer pressure to get the third goal, after the team had already celebrated the achievement once.

“Everyone was congratulating me about the hat trick, then they came back and told me, ‘It’s not yours, it’s Marshy’s,'” Bergeron said. “Everyone was saying, ‘It’s only your first one?’ So I guess I wanted that last goal.”

Bergeron’s teammates were stunned that with 112 career goals since debuting as an 18-year-old in 2003, none had come bunched in a threesome in a single game.

“It’s surprising that it was his first one,” Bruins forward Blake Wheeler said. “I would have thought he’d have got five or six by now. But it’s a big night for him. He’s been playing unbelievable hockey for us. He really stepped it up for us when we needed it most, kind of got us back on track. It’s a lot of fun to watch him, and when you’re out there with him you feel like something good is going to happen.”

Marchand, who took Bergeron’s first milestone marker, was equally happy.

“It’s great for Bergie, he deserves that,” Marchand said. “He’s persistent. I guess it was fate. He was due to get one. I’m glad for him.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Marchand added of it being Bergeron’s first hat trick. “He’s such an amazing player. I figured he’d have five or six by now. I guess that’s how it goes sometimes.”

And even this one came with some question, as Bergeron’s second goal could just as easily have belonged to Wheeler. Bergeron earned it though, as he stole the puck deep in the Boston end as an Ottawa power play wound down, then regained it again with a battle at the blue line to clear it from the Bruins’ zone.

Bergeron then drove down the left side and cut to the front of the net. He lost control there as the puck popped up, and both Bergeron and Wheeler tried to get a stick on it to bang it home. Bergeron was given the goal, and even though Wheeler believed he may have hit it too, he was more than happy to let Bergeron keep it.

“I thought I touched it,” Wheeler said. “But at this point there’s no debate. It doesn’t matter. The puck went in the net.”

It’s probably best for the Senators that Wheeler didn’t press the issue. If that one had been taken away, Bergeron probably would have just gone out and scored another on them.