Dallas Stars players and fans were all smiles after last night’s performance against the Philadelphia Flyers, especially as star forward Tyler Seguin record a natural hat-trick (his second hat-trick of the season)… on free hat night.

As a promotion by AT&T, every attendee received a free victory green hat bearing the Dallas Stars logo. Although there was a small turnout to the game (Dallas was hit by a storm, leaving the roads and highways covered by a thick layer of ice), the hats came raining down onto the ice with the fans screaming in excitement, making the dangerous trip to the American Airlines Center worth it for everyone. Well, except for the Flyers fans in the house.

The game started out a bit ominously, with many Flyers fans being in attendance and immediately starting out with a “Let’s Go Flyers” chant, which was soon muffled as the ever-passionate Dallas fans just screamed louder. Despite the fans efforts, the Flyers fans just got rowdier (and more obnoxious) when Andrej Meszaros got the puck past Dan Ellis for a Flyers goal towards the end of the first.

Their excitement was short lived, as Tyler Seguin came out in the second and evened up the score 1-1 about 37 seconds into the period, assisted by Jamie Benn and Valeri Nichushkin. The rest of the second went scoreless until the last 3 minutes. Tyler Seguin came in and scored again on Steve Mason, this time assisted by Alex Goligoski and Valeri Nichushkin. 40 more seconds passed before Seguin managed to complete the hatty, in a goal that was a bit confusing. It appeared that the goal was knocked in by Jamie Benn’s stick, but Jamie pointed to Tyler saying it was his goal. They then announced the goal as Nichushkin’s, but after a review ruled that the goal was indeed scored by Tyler Seguin and assisted by Valeri Nichushkin. This prompted the hat-trick tradition of tossing hats, with a shower of victory green raining down from all directions, also shutting up the last screaming Flyers fans.

The Stars weren’t quite done yet. Just seconds later 18 year old Valeri Nichushkin, already having a three point night, scored, raising the deficit to 3 and giving him his 4th point of the night, also bringing his season goal total to 4 goals. Steve Mason was replaced after letting in 4 goals in the 2nd, with the Flyers putting in Ray Emery to finish the game. He still wasn’t a match for Cody Eakin, who scored midway through the third, assisted by Antoine Roussel.

This game was an exciting one to watch, with the fans as well as the players being full of energy and excitement, giving the Stars some momentum after having a rough week, losing key players Stephane Robidas and Trevor Daley, as well as suffering an OT loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on December 5th, preparing them for their next game on the 10th against what appear to be their new rivals, the Chicago Blackhawks.

Video of Seguin’s hat-trick celebration:

A new star is rising in Dallas.