With three goals in her first game at the 2019 Women's Worlds, Czech captain Alena Mills joined the list of great players who have scored noteworthy hat tricks at this tournament.
photo: Matt Zambonin / HHOF-IIHF Images
Hat tricks aren’t measured in significance by the number of hats that litter the ice. And that’s a good thing at the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship, where spectators haven’t been able to attend the games due to pandemic bubble restrictions.
Truly, three-goal performances stand out when they lead to big wins, set the right tone for a tournament, or make a little bit of history. Czech captain Alena Mills ticked those boxes when she lit the red lamp thrice en route to a 6-1 victory over newly promoted Denmark on Day One in Calgary.
Czech coach Tomas Pacina hailed the work habits that led to the 31-year-old KRS Vanke Rays forward’s offensive outburst: “She’s always fantastic at practice, whether it’s on the ice or off the ice. She watches video. She’s extremely detailed. She’s very steady, very consistent.”
It’s an assessment that could apply to many other stars who have delivered hat tricks worth remembering at the Women’s Worlds over the years.
At the inaugural 1990 Women’s Worlds in Ottawa, iconic female stars carved out their hat-trick niches in the IIHF record book as if singing “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better).”
Why stop at just three goals? The U.S.’s Cindy Curley, who set the all-time tournament scoring record (23 points), notched five goals – including four in the first period alone – and four assists in a 17-0 shellacking of Norway on 21 March.
That same day, Canada’s Angela James, who’d later join the first class of women to make both the IIHF Hall of Fame and Hockey Hall of Fame, and Laura Schuler, who’d coach the 2016 and 2017 Women’s Worlds teams and 2018 Olympic team, both scored four goals in a 17-0 thumping of West Germany.
At the 1994 Women’s Worlds, multi-sport Finnish great Hanna Teerijoki joined Curley as the only other woman to tally five goals in a game and four goals in one period. Finland hammered Germany 17-1 in Lake Placid on 11 April.
If we’re talking about clutch hat tricks, it doesn’t get any more clutch than Nancy Drolet in the 1997 gold medal game in Kitchener, Ontario.
The nifty sniper from Drummondville, Quebec had previously scored a hat trick in a 8-0 final romp over the Americans in Tampere in 1992. But in ‘97, Drolet took things to another level.
She scored twice in regulation time before taking a mondo hit from U.S. forward Vicki Movsessian in overtime, which led to a fruitless Canadian power play. Despite being shaken up, Drolet recovered on the bench, got back out there, and potted the 4-3 sudden-death winner to complete her hat trick. “I just gave all I got—and I got three goals,” she said afterwards.
If you feel the need for speed, nobody’s recorded a quicker hat trick than the U.S.’s Alana Blahoski in 2000. It came in 5:48 in a 15-0 pounding of Russia on 4 April.
The last time Canada won home-ice gold at the Women’s Worlds, Danielle Goyette’s hat trick sparked an tournament-opening 9-0 victory over Switzerland in Winnipeg in 2007. It set the tone for what proved to be Goyette’s all-time record ninth gold-medal run. “You don’t have a lot of games at the World Championship and we cannot take anything easy,” she told reporters.
After retiring in 2007, the future IIHF and Hockey Hall of Famer, interestingly, would spend 14 years coaching the University of Calgary Dinos before joining the Toronto Maple Leafs organization this year.
With Hilary Knight just one goal back of fellow American icon Cammi Granato (44 goals) for the all-time Women’s Worlds lead, it’ll come as no surprise that “Knighter” has had her share of hat tricks.
She and Julie Chu both scored three times in a Day One 8-0 pasting of Japan at the 2009 Women’s Worlds in Hameenlinna, Finland, in which the eventual champion U.S. outshot the Japanese 74-8. In 2012, when the U.S. drubbed Canada 9-2 in the group stage – the most lopsided win ever for the Americans over their archrivals – Knight and Monique Lamoureux each had a hat trick.
Current Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin is most famous for her decisive two-goal performances in the 2010 and 2014 Olympic gold medal games. However, MPP’s single most prolific Women’s Worlds game was in 2013, the only year she won the tournament scoring title (12 points). She racked up three goals and two assists when Canada hammered Switzerland 13-0 in Ottawa.
While Natalie Spooner’s most recent Women’s Worlds hatty was in Canada’s 5-1 group-stage win over Russia in 2019, the one she got against Finland in 2016 loomed larger. In the semi-final in Kamloops, Spooner scored her third goal into an empty net with goalie Meeri Raisanen pulled for the extra attacker during a Finnish power play. Canada advanced with a 5-3 victory, but would fall 1-0 in overtime to the Americans on Alex Carpenter’s golden goal.
With the cornucopia of talent at the 2021 Women’s Worlds, we can be optimistic that even bigger and better hat tricks than what Alena Mills delivered on Day One may be yet to come. Hats off to that idea!
Truly, three-goal performances stand out when they lead to big wins, set the right tone for a tournament, or make a little bit of history. Czech captain Alena Mills ticked those boxes when she lit the red lamp thrice en route to a 6-1 victory over newly promoted Denmark on Day One in Calgary.
Czech coach Tomas Pacina hailed the work habits that led to the 31-year-old KRS Vanke Rays forward’s offensive outburst: “She’s always fantastic at practice, whether it’s on the ice or off the ice. She watches video. She’s extremely detailed. She’s very steady, very consistent.”
It’s an assessment that could apply to many other stars who have delivered hat tricks worth remembering at the Women’s Worlds over the years.
At the inaugural 1990 Women’s Worlds in Ottawa, iconic female stars carved out their hat-trick niches in the IIHF record book as if singing “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better).”
Why stop at just three goals? The U.S.’s Cindy Curley, who set the all-time tournament scoring record (23 points), notched five goals – including four in the first period alone – and four assists in a 17-0 shellacking of Norway on 21 March.
That same day, Canada’s Angela James, who’d later join the first class of women to make both the IIHF Hall of Fame and Hockey Hall of Fame, and Laura Schuler, who’d coach the 2016 and 2017 Women’s Worlds teams and 2018 Olympic team, both scored four goals in a 17-0 thumping of West Germany.
At the 1994 Women’s Worlds, multi-sport Finnish great Hanna Teerijoki joined Curley as the only other woman to tally five goals in a game and four goals in one period. Finland hammered Germany 17-1 in Lake Placid on 11 April.
If we’re talking about clutch hat tricks, it doesn’t get any more clutch than Nancy Drolet in the 1997 gold medal game in Kitchener, Ontario.
The nifty sniper from Drummondville, Quebec had previously scored a hat trick in a 8-0 final romp over the Americans in Tampere in 1992. But in ‘97, Drolet took things to another level.
She scored twice in regulation time before taking a mondo hit from U.S. forward Vicki Movsessian in overtime, which led to a fruitless Canadian power play. Despite being shaken up, Drolet recovered on the bench, got back out there, and potted the 4-3 sudden-death winner to complete her hat trick. “I just gave all I got—and I got three goals,” she said afterwards.
If you feel the need for speed, nobody’s recorded a quicker hat trick than the U.S.’s Alana Blahoski in 2000. It came in 5:48 in a 15-0 pounding of Russia on 4 April.
The last time Canada won home-ice gold at the Women’s Worlds, Danielle Goyette’s hat trick sparked an tournament-opening 9-0 victory over Switzerland in Winnipeg in 2007. It set the tone for what proved to be Goyette’s all-time record ninth gold-medal run. “You don’t have a lot of games at the World Championship and we cannot take anything easy,” she told reporters.
After retiring in 2007, the future IIHF and Hockey Hall of Famer, interestingly, would spend 14 years coaching the University of Calgary Dinos before joining the Toronto Maple Leafs organization this year.
With Hilary Knight just one goal back of fellow American icon Cammi Granato (44 goals) for the all-time Women’s Worlds lead, it’ll come as no surprise that “Knighter” has had her share of hat tricks.
She and Julie Chu both scored three times in a Day One 8-0 pasting of Japan at the 2009 Women’s Worlds in Hameenlinna, Finland, in which the eventual champion U.S. outshot the Japanese 74-8. In 2012, when the U.S. drubbed Canada 9-2 in the group stage – the most lopsided win ever for the Americans over their archrivals – Knight and Monique Lamoureux each had a hat trick.
Current Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin is most famous for her decisive two-goal performances in the 2010 and 2014 Olympic gold medal games. However, MPP’s single most prolific Women’s Worlds game was in 2013, the only year she won the tournament scoring title (12 points). She racked up three goals and two assists when Canada hammered Switzerland 13-0 in Ottawa.
While Natalie Spooner’s most recent Women’s Worlds hatty was in Canada’s 5-1 group-stage win over Russia in 2019, the one she got against Finland in 2016 loomed larger. In the semi-final in Kamloops, Spooner scored her third goal into an empty net with goalie Meeri Raisanen pulled for the extra attacker during a Finnish power play. Canada advanced with a 5-3 victory, but would fall 1-0 in overtime to the Americans on Alex Carpenter’s golden goal.
With the cornucopia of talent at the 2021 Women’s Worlds, we can be optimistic that even bigger and better hat tricks than what Alena Mills delivered on Day One may be yet to come. Hats off to that idea!