On February 2, 1971, Peter Mahovlich, nicknamed “Little M,” scored the first hat trick of his career. After being drafted second overall by the Detroit Red Wings in 1963, the younger Mahovlich failed to meet expectations in Motor City and was traded to the Montreal Canadiens with Bart Crashley in June 1969 in return for Garry Monahan and Doug Piper.
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Little M spent his first season in the Habs organization, splitting his time between the Canadiens and their AHL affiliate, the Montreal Voyageurs. In 36 NHL contests, he was limited to just 17 points.
However, he hit the ground running in the 1970-71 campaign and gathered 61 points, including 35 goals, an exploit for a player who had never scored more than nine goals in an NHL campaign. In mid-January 1971, Sam Pollock acquired his brother, Frank Mahovlich, from the same Red Wings for Guy Charron, Bill Collins, and Billy Redmond.
Once reunited with his brother, the Big M scored 41 points in 38 games to close out the year, and the brothers would become an integral part of the Canadiens’ dynasty in the 1970s. A little over a month after his brother was acquired, Little M scored the first hat-trick of a career that would see him put up 288 goals and 485 assists for 773 points in 884 games.
Little M wasn’t one of the top hat trick scorers with the Montreal Canadiens though, as shown in the following table:
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Maurice Richard 26
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Jean Beliveau 18
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Guy Lafleur 16
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Newsy Lalonde 15
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Howie Morenz 14
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Bernie Geoffrion 14
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Aurele Joliat 10
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Yvan Cournoyer 9
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Steve Shutt 9
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Joe Malone 8
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Odie Cleghorn 8
As surprising as it may seems, even Maurice “Rocket” Ricard is nowhere near the top of the league in terms of hat tricks scored. Wayne Gretzky, who was first and foremost a natural born-playmaker, still managed to grab the hat trick record. 50 times he scored three goals in a game, more than twice as many times as the Rocket. Even Alexander Ovechkin, who is on his way to beating the Great One’s goal scoring record, doesn’t come close to his hat tick record, earlier this week, he pocketed the 32nd of his career, the fifth highest number in NHL History.
1. Wayne Gretzky 50
2. Mario Lemieux 40
3. Mike Bossy 39
4. Brett Hull 33
5. Alexander Ovechkin 32
It’s been quite a while since the Canadiens have had a player who could score hat tricks more often than once in a blue moon, the last one to grab one this season was been Patrik Laine in a 6-1 slaughtering of the Buffalo Sabres. It was the 11th hat trick of his career and his first with the Canadiens.
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