The hat trick, of sorts, was one for the ages, 12 goals scored in three games spanning seven months against three very different opponents.
On Feb. 7, 1976, Toronto Maple Leafs captain Darryl Sittler scored six goals with four assists against the Boston Bruins, his 10-point game at Maple Leaf Gardens still an NHL record.
On April 22, Sittler scored five times in a Stanley Cup Playoff game against the Flyers in Philadelphia, equaling a postseason record that had been set in 1944 by Montreal Canadiens legend Maurice "Rocket" Richard.
Then in overtime on Sept. 15, with the Rocket in the Montreal Forum that he'd made as famous as slugger Babe Ruth had fashioned Yankee Stadium, Sittler scored the 1976 Canada Cup-clinching goal for Canada against Czechoslovakia, setting off a wild celebration in the arena and well beyond.
The 1976 tournament was the world's first best-on-best multi-nation event that included professional players, Sittler's championship-clinching goal an exclamation mark in Canadian hockey lore.