Natural hat tricks are a little like unicorns; they aren't seen very often, and when they are, those in attendance often have to pinch themselves to make sure it really happened.
Yet, what happened in a Minnesota girls hockey game was even more unbelievable: A star scored a perfect hat trick in a single shift of ice time.
As first reported by Minnesota Girls Hockey Hub, Benilde-St. Margaret's (Minn.) High sophomore Kelly Pannek finished a natural hat trick in only 22 seconds during her squad's 9-2 victory against Totino-Grace (Minn.) High. The flash-quick three goals broke a prior state record for fastest hat trick by a whopping 32 seconds.
"It was so surreal," Benilde-St. Margaret's girls hockey coach Dave Herbst told Minnesota Girls Hockey Hub. "We looked around and were like, 'What just happened?' They were really good goals, too. She sniped them."
The first of the trio came just 57 seconds into the period. She scored again 14 seconds later … and again eight seconds after that. The three-goal shift added to another goal and assist the sophomore scored in the game, pushing her season totals to a whopping 32 goals and 16 assists in just 17 games.
Still, despite her prolific track record, no one saw her blistering hat trick coming.
"Even she looked at me like and was like, 'I don't know. I don't know what happened,'" Herbst said.
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