What Is A Natural Hat Trick In Hockey?

natural hat trick

A hat trick is the most a hockey player can get. It’s when they score 3 goals in one game, whether during regulation or overtime and on penalty shots – any way except for shootouts.

What is a natural hat trick?

The term “hat trick” is derived from the name of an old game played in England which suggests that players are required to wear three hats during play. The NHL record for quickest hat-trick was set by Bill Mosienko who scored 21 seconds into his match against Detroit Red Wings on October 12th, 1952; he also had two other goals within this same period making it four consecutive wins without allowing any misses.

Mosienko recorded the hat trick against New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on March 23, 1952. His victims were goaltender Lorne Anderson who allowed all three goals in just over 3rd period time span for him to get his dish up with an overtime-winning goal too.

How many hat tricks are natural?

This is the breakdown of all-natural hat tricks in NHL history. Out of 338 regular season hockey games, 46 were achieved with an unassisted goal.

Natural Hat Tricks Scored by NHL Defensemen

If you go all the way back to 1917 (the NHL’s inaugural season), only 12 defensemen ever managed to score a natural hat trick. Al MacInnis (Calgary Flames) managed the feat twice. This total includes regular season and playoffs.

natural hat trick

natural hat trick

Only once has a defenseman managed to score 3 consecutive goals in the playoffs. As can observe from the defensemen list, that honor goes to Dick Redmond of the Chicago Blackhawks.

In his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut, Redmond scored a natural hat trick against the St. Louis Blues in a 7-1 victory. He scored twice in the first period and the other in the second.

Natural Hat Tricks from 2016-2021

natural hat trick

Natural Hat Trick Debate

When it comes to natural hat tricks, there are two situations in which you might question whether or not the player has achieved this feat. The first situation we already covered when discussing the definition of a “natural” hat trick–whether or not goals were scored within one period and across another (including overtime).

The second case would arise if someone scores 3 consecutive times at any point throughout the play; even though each goal may seem relatively simple on its own terms they become more impressive collectively because everyone knows how difficult practice shots into tight spaces can be.

This next situation is quite interesting. What if Player A scores a goal, followed by another player, followed by three consecutive goals again from Player A? That is, Player A scored 4 goals in total. However, the original hat trick did not stem from consecutive goals.

When you think about it, the hat trick is really just an extra goal. It doesn’t matter if Player A scores three or four other times in a game; he’ll still get one for scoring all goals by definition-no matter what type. The input sentences are fine but there’s too much information on how many times someone else gets two hats instead of saying “both” at least once.

A natural hat trick is when a player scores 3 consecutive goals in one game. It’s not an easy feat to accomplish, but it can happen.

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