{"id":88073,"date":"2026-01-03T11:17:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T11:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/88073\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T11:17:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T11:17:13","slug":"new-york-rangers-mika-zibanejad-records-first-hat-trick-in-nhl-winter-classic-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/88073\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Rangers\u2019 Mika Zibanejad records first hat trick in NHL Winter Classic history"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mika<\/p>\n

With 5 points in a 5-1 win over the Panthers, Mika Zibanejad was awarded “The Cocoa Cup” after the game, given to the MVP at the Winter Classic. Carmen Mandato \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

By Peter Baugh<\/a><\/p>\n

Jan. 2, 2026Updated Jan. 3, 2026 12:21 am EST<\/p>\n

MIAMI \u2014 New York Rangers center Mika Zibanejad scored the first hat trick in NHL Winter Classic history Friday, capping it off with an empty net goal to seal a 5-1 Rangers win against the Florida Panthers at LoanDepot Park in Miami. He had 5 points on the night, a record for outdoor games.<\/p>\n

Zibanejad\u2019s first goal came on the power play. Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re fed him as he cut to the net, and he redirected it in. The goal was the 116th power-play goal of his Rangers career, tying Chris Kreider and Camille Henry for the team record.<\/p>\n

Lafreni\u00e8re fed Zibanejad again in the second period for a two-on-one goal right after a power play ended. His empty net goal was short-handed after a Carson Soucy penalty.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood player,\u201d Lafreni\u00e8re deadpanned after the game with a smile. \u201cHe\u2019s one of our best players, one of our leaders, so it\u2019s good to see him play like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zibanejad has a good track record in outdoor games. He\u2019s 4-0-0 dating to his time with the Ottawa Senators. He won the 2014 Heritage Classic with Ottawa, the 2018 Winter Classic with the Rangers, the 2024 Stadium Series with the Rangers and now the 2026 Winter Classic.<\/p>\n

Zibanejad was awarded \u201cThe Cocoa Cup\u201d after the game, given to the MVP at the Winter Classic.<\/p>\n

It was a perfect ending to an already great day for Zibanejad, who was named to Sweden\u2019s 2026 Olympic roster as an alternate captain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With 5 points in a 5-1 win over the Panthers, Mika Zibanejad was awarded “The Cocoa Cup” after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12401,9,11,10,541,539],"class_list":["post-88073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-florida-panthers","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}