The 1951-52 season is notable in National Hockey League history for many reasons. That season the goal crease was stretched to four by eight feet. The face-off circles were enlarged to 30 feet in diameter. And for the first time home teams were required to wear colored uniforms, while the visitors had to don primarily white jerseys.
But the most noteworthy occurrence that campaign was accomplished in the last regular-season game by a 30-year-old right wing from Winnipeg.
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The Chicago Blackhawks Bill Mosienko (8) scores the last of his three goals beating New York’s rookie goalie, Lorne Anderson. |
Bill Mosienko played his entire NHL career with the Chicago Blackhawks as one of the few talented players among a group of average skaters. In his first season, 1943-44, he scored 32 goals, a considerable total in the early Forties. Mosienko went on to become one of the few players to score more than 250 goals during the 1940s and ’50s.
"Mosie, as he was known to his teammates, was very talented at both passing and shooting the puck. Unfortunately, his star didn’t shine as brightly as those belonging to a couple other right wingers: the Detroit Red Wings’ Gordie Howe and the Montreal Canadiens’ Maurice Richard.
The final regular season game of the 1951-52 season was played on March 23 in New York’s Madison Square Garden. It pitted two non-playoff teams: the fifth-place Rangers and the cellar-dwelling Blackhawks. Oddly that night, referee George Gravel didn’t call a single penalty on a player.
Still, with just 3,000 people in the Garden, the Black Hawks and the Rangers still put on a spectacular scoring show. The Rangers scored six goals and were cruising to two points when "Mosie" struck 6:09 into the third period. Taking a pass from his centerman, Gus Bodnar, Mosienko skated past Rangers defenseman Hy Buller and fired a low wrist shot past New York’s rookie goalie, Lorne Anderson.
Bodnar won the ensuing face-off at center ice and fired the puck to Mosienko, who was streaking into the Rangers’ zone. "Mosie" got by Buller again and let go another wrist shot, beating Anderson on his glove side. Two goals in just 11 seconds! Since the goal was Moseinko’s 30th of the season, he retrieved the puck from the Rangers’ net.
Again, Bodnar won the center-ice face-off. He quickly fed the puck to George Gee on his left wing. Mosienko drove to the Rangers’ net and took a pass from Gee. Instead of unleashing another wrist shot, Mosienko deked Anderson, who had skated out from his crease to cut down the angle, and slid the puck into the net.
A hat trick in just 21 seconds! Not realizing that he had set an NHL record, Mosienko didn't bother to collect the puck from the Rangers’ net. But alert teammate Jimmy Peters did.
Incredibly, "Mosie" wasn’t finished terrorizing the Rangers. Seconds later, he yet had Anderson out of position, but missed the net.
Mosienko’s accomplishment easily eclipsed the previous NHL record for the fastest hat trick: 112 seconds by the Red Wings’ Carl Liscombe in 1938.
Ten years after "Mosie’s final NHL season, the 1954-55 campaign, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
By the way, the Rangers held on to win the game, 7-6. |
