In Thursday night’s 4-3 overtime victory over Montreal, Marco Rossi scored a goal, earned an assist and received a five-minute major for fighting, picking up a rare Gordie Howe hat trick.
The Wild’s rookie center now has half as many as Gordie Howe did.
Over 25 NHL seasons, Howe earned a reputation as one of hockey’s best and toughest players, registering 786 goals and 1,809 points. And it’s difficult to chart his fights, and therefore how many Gordie Howe hat tricks he really had. But after cross-referencing several articles with Howe’s prohockey.com game logs, for points and 5-minute majors, it appears the answer is two (see chart).
“He’s only had a couple of them. I don’t know who called it that,” Howe’s son, Marty, told Sportsnet’s Luke Fox. “The Gordie Howe hat trick should really be a goal, an assist and a cross-check to the face. That might be more accurate.”
After giving the Wild a 2-0 first-period lead with a snap shot from the left circle, Rossi — a stout but average-sized young man — picked a fight with Montreal’s Kaiden Guhle after the Canadiens’ blue liner leveled Kirill Kaprizov with what Rossi thought was a dangerous check into the boards.
It was Rossi’s first hockey fight, at any level.
“It went so quickly, so I wasn’t thinking so much,” he said.
Rossi was given a 5-minute major for fighting, 2 minutes for instigating and a 10-minute game misconduct — a tough 17 minutes for a team that already was skating 11 forwards. But he received plaudits from his teammates.
“It’s a pack mentality in here, obviously. We all care about each other,” said veteran defenseman Zach Bogosian, who was among three teammates who skated to the box to commend Rossi for the fight. “Any time you see someone get hit of that magnitude, you want to stick up for them.
“It’s certainly not an easy thing to do, putting your body on the line like that. But it was great to see him do it. Those are character-building moments within the locker room. Maybe from the outside, they don’t really get acknowledged too much, but it means a lot to a lot of guys in here.”
Brock Faber and Vinni Lettieri also went to the box for fist bumps, and when Rossi returned midway through the third period, he earned an assist on Faber’s power-play goal with 8:57 remaining.
“It’s nice get the support from there, and it cheered me up, so it was nice,” Rossi said.
Briefly
Ryan Hartman was scratched from Thursday’s game because of an upper-body injury. Coach John Hynes said he is day to day. … Jared Spurgeon (lower body) also remains day to day, although he has missed the past five games. He skated by himself on Thursday morning. … The Wild took Friday off.
Gordie’s gold
It’s named after him, but Gordie Howe had only two Gordie Howe tricks — a goal, an assist and a fight — in a storied 25-year NHL career. Here are the games in which he was issued a 5-minute major and earned at least a point:
Date Points
Oct. 20, 1946 0-1–1
Nov. 11, 1950 1-0–1
Nov. 8, 1952 0-2–2
Nov. 22, 1952 0-2–2
March 24, 1954 1-2–3
Dec. 16, 1956 1-0–1
Feb. 2, 1957 0-1–1
Feb. 1, 1959 2-0–2
Feb. 28, 1965 0-2–2
Oct. 26, 1967 2-2–4
Source: prohockey.com database.
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