what is hat trick in hockey

A hat trick in hockey is when a single player scores three goals in one game (not counting shootout goals).

Quick Scoop: What Is a Hat Trick in Hockey?

In hockey, a hat trick happens the moment one player scores their third goal of the same game, whether in regulation or overtime. Fans celebrate by throwing their hats onto the ice, creating a quick pause in the action while the ice crew clears everything away.

Key points

• One player, three goals, same game = hat trick.

• Goals can be at any time in the game (regulation or OT), but shootout goals do not count.

• Fans traditionally toss hats onto the ice to celebrate the player’s big moment.

A few fun variations

• Natural hat trick: One player scores three goals in a row, with no other player from either team scoring between them.

• Gordie Howe hat trick (more of a joke term): A player gets a goal, an assist, and a fight in the same game, named after legend Gordie Howe.

Quick bit of origin flavor

The phrase “hat trick” originally came from cricket, where a bowler taking three wickets on three consecutive balls could be rewarded with a hat. The term later crossed into hockey, and by the mid‑1900s NHL fans were tossing hats on the ice, with some stories crediting early promotions from local hat shops in Canadian cities like Toronto and Montreal.

Imagine a packed arena, a player buries goal number three, and suddenly a rain of caps, beanies, and random lids covers the ice—everyone knows they’ve just witnessed a hat trick.

TL;DR: A hat trick in hockey is when one player scores three goals in a single game, sparking the long‑running tradition of fans throwing their hats onto the ice to celebrate.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.