Celebrini's 3rd career hat trick single handedly lifts Sharks past the Mammoth

Celebrini once again showed why he is viewed as the next face. Of the NHL with his performance Tuesday night against the Utah Mammoth. Celebrini scored 3 times for his 3rd career hat trick and 2nd of the season at just 19. And lead the Sharks to a 3-2 overtime win over the Utah Mammoth. 

It was another incredible performance by Celebrini, who has started to make the game look easy on a night-to-night basis. His 13 goals and 30 points both tie him for 2nd in the NHL in each category, respectively.

His first goal came off some strong work by Kurashev and Will Smith. After Celebrini missed a pass to Kurashev on the rush, Kurashev did a good job tracking the puck and finding Will Smith with space in front of the net. Instead of taking the grade A scoring chance, Smith opted to thread a pass through a Utah defender and found Celebrini lost in space for a wide-open net. A high difficulty play that worked out for the Sharks.

The second goal was created off two strong defensive plays by both Celebrini and Graf, who created a turnover on the Utah blueline. Graf was able to chip the puck up to a streaking Celebrini for the breakaway. Celebrini fired a wrister that beat Vanacek under the right pad, his 2nd of the night, with both goals coming in the first period. 

After Utah tied the game 2-2 in the third, the game headed to overtime. A Utah to many men penalty led to a Sharks power play. Celebrini would load up. From the high point and fire a laserbeam wrister through a screen and perfectly over Vanacek’s right shoulder to complete his 3rd hat trick and send Sharks fans home happy with their 9th win of the season.

Celebrini has been unreal for the San Jose Sharks and quite literally dragged this team to victory tonight. While it’s great to see Celebrini do incredible things night in and night out, it can’t be understated just how important he is to the Sharks' ability to win. The last time the Sharks scored a goal that did not involve Celebrini was November 8th against the Florida Panthers; that's four straight games without any offense away from their 19-year-old superstar. For as great as Celebrini has been, this is not sustainable. The Sharks' depth scoring has completely dried up, and it shows; they have just six goals over those four games, and are 2-2 without superstar play from both Celebrini and Askarov. The Sharks are likely to be winless in that timeframe. 

There is no doubt that Celebrini will continue doing incredible things; he is a truly special talent, and with him leading the way, the sky is the limit for the Sharks, but they need to do a better job at supporting him if they want to be taken seriously on a night-to-night basis.