The term comes from 19th-century British cricket, where a bowler who dismissed three batsmen on three consecutive deliveries received a new hat as a prize. The word crossed the Atlantic and attached itself to hockey in the 1940s: the most commonly told origin points to Toronto, where a hatter gave a free hat to any player, on either team, who scored three goals in a game at Maple Leaf Gardens. Whether the anecdote is accurate word for word or polished by time, the tradition of hats raining onto the ice is very real and continues today in every league.
Not every combination of three goals is equal in fans' eyes. A NATURAL hat trick means three goals scored consecutively by the same player, with no teammate or opponent scoring in between, the most prestigious version. The Gordie Howe hat trick, on the other hand, has nothing to do with goal-scoring at all: it is a goal, an assist and a fight in the same game by the same player, a nod to the legendary Gordie Howe's all-around style rather than a real offensive feat.
A hat trick stays a rare event at every level: in the NHL, a player nets a handful at best across a full season, and the vast majority of professional forwards record zero in some years. In youth hockey, rarity depends heavily on level and the gap in strength between teams; three goals against a clearly weaker opponent does not compare to three goals in a tight game between evenly matched rivals. Game context matters at least as much as the number three itself.
Tracking a young player's hat tricks (and especially whether one was natural) requires logging the exact order of goals during the game, not just the final total. RinkLog records every goal with its time and sequence, which makes it possible to check afterward whether three goals were truly consecutive, and keeps a full-season history of every hat trick along the way.
A practical detail for parents: most youth hockey arenas ban throwing anything onto the ice, unlike professional and junior venues where the tradition is tolerated and even encouraged. A young player's hat trick usually gets celebrated differently instead, cheering and noise from the stands rather than hats on the ice, a local adaptation of the tradition rather than a lack of respect for it.
Frequently asked questions
Do the three goals need to be consecutive for a hat trick?
No, not under the most common definition: three goals by the same player in one game is enough, regardless of order. Only a NATURAL hat trick requires the three goals to come one after another with no other scorer in between.
What is a Gordie Howe hat trick?
It is a goal, an assist and a fight by the same player in the same game, a tongue-in-cheek nod to Gordie Howe's all-around style of play. It has nothing to do with scoring three goals.
RinkLog measures and computes all of this automatically during your hockey, ball hockey and ringette games.
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