Which NHL player recorded the fastest hat trick in league history?

Bill Mosienko recorded the fastest hat trick in NHL history, scoring three goals in 21 seconds.

Mosienko set the record for the Chicago Black Hawks against the New York Rangers on March 23, 1952. He scored all three goals in the first period, and teammate Gus Bodnar assisted on each one. Chicago won the game 7–4, turning Mosienko’s short burst into one of hockey’s most enduring records.

A hat trick means one player scores three goals in a game. The 21-second mark measures the time between Mosienko’s first and third goals, not three consecutive shifts or three uninterrupted possessions. That distinction matters because hockey play continues through line changes, faceoffs, and stoppages.

Mosienko was a small, exceptionally fast winger who spent his NHL career with Chicago. His record has survived generations of faster skating and more specialized offensive tactics, making it one of the NHL’s clearest examples of an apparently unreachable single-game mark.