Panarin surpassed Kovalchuk's NHL achievement

Rangers forward Artemi Panarin scored a hat trick and made an assist in the match against Detroit (5-2) in the regular NHL championship.

This game was the 23rd for the 32-year-old Russian, in which he scored 4+ points. By that metric, Panarin moved into third place among left wingers in their first 10 NHL seasons. He surpassed Ilya Kovalchuk, who stopped in 22 such games.

Panarin has 11 (5+6) points in 4 starting games of the season. He was named the first star of the game day in the NHL.