This 3 deserves a 10

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This article was published 05/03/2016 (3500 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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It was a weekly ritual for Mark Scheifele as a kid growing up in Kitchener, Ont., to spend hours glued to the television every Saturday night watching his heroes perform on Hockey Night in Canada.

After shining so brightly on that same stage Saturday night, the 22-year-old made sure to soak in every moment following his first NHL hat trick in a 4-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens at the MTS Centre.

“That’s something that you dream of as a kid,” said Scheifele to a herd of reporters after the game. “To play against a good team like them, on Hockey Night in Canada, it makes it that much better.”

Playing between Blake Wheeler and Drew Stafford, Scheifele opened the scoring in the second period, had his second of the night by the 13-minute mark of the third frame — a goal that put the Jets up for good at 3-2 — and completed the hat trick with an empty-net marker with 29 ticks left on the clock.

It was an encore to a two-goal performance in a 4-3 overtime loss to the New York Islanders Thursday night. Scheifele now has eight goals and 13 points in his last eight games, playing arguably the best hockey of his young career.

“It’s definitely huge for me right now,” said Scheifele. “With (No. 1 centre Bryan) Little going down I wanted to be that guy that stepped up and give a little bit more and I just want to continue to do that.”

Scheifele admitted there’s some added motivation behind his recent streak. Wednesday, he was excluded from the preliminary roster for Team North America — a list of 16 players, all under the age of 23, guaranteed a spot in this fall’s World Cup of Hockey tournament in Toronto.

“Obviously, when you’re not named to a team you’re definitely going to be a little mad, a little angry, but that’s just extra motivation,” he said. “It’s definitely in your mind, but you try and play for your team first.”

“That’s what you want,” said Jets coach Paul Maurice. “Anybody that felt they should be here or should be in that consideration, that didn’t get the first nod, that’s a competitive man.”

What made Scheifele’s performance that much better was it came in a win, something the Jets have struggled to collect all season and particularly of late. The victory over the Candiens snapped a six-game losing skid at the MTS Centre.

‘That’s something that you dream of as a kid. To play against a good team like them, on Hockey Night in Canada, it makes it that much better’– Jets centre Mark Scheifele 

“We’ve been battling hard, we’ve been playing good and just haven’t been rewarded for it,” said Scheifele. “Tonight showed a lot by us. We battled back, we didn’t give up. We continued to fight for that next one and it just showed tonight.”

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

twitter: @jeffkhamilton