This Day in Hockey History – January 16, 1934 – Doraty’s OT HT

Jan 16, 2019

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Only one NHL hat trick has been scored in overtime, and it happened to be the only NHL hat trick scored by Ken Doraty. Until the NHL suspended overtime play during World War II, a tie at the end of the third period called for an entire 10-minute additional period. Doraty was able to put all that time to good use when his Toronto Maple Leafs played the Ottawa Senators on January 16, 1934.

Doraty, a “diminutive right winger,” played professional hockey in various leagues between 1923 and 1939, but he only spent five seasons in the NHL. After playing for the Chicago Blackhawks for their inaugural season, he spent the early 1930s with Toronto. His final NHL games were with the Detroit Red Wings during the 1937-38 season. In all, Doraty played 103 NHL games scoring only 15 goals and 26 assists for 41 points.

The highlight of his entire career seems to have been January 16, 1934, when the Maple Leafs visited Ottawa. According to the Ottawa Citizen, the audience of 8,000 was the largest of the season. After a scoreless first frame, the Senators scored twice in the second. During the first five minutes of the third period, the Maple Leafs were able to tie up the score. Then Ottawa again pulled ahead by two goals. About three minutes later, Toronto scored again and a final time fifty seconds after that. Tommy Shields wrote for the Ottawa Citizen, “It was fast, wide-open hockey from start to finish, with plenty of spirit being shown by both teams.” When regulation time expired, the teams were tied 4-4.

To attempt to break the tie, the teams took the ice for another 10 minutes. In the very first minute, Ottawa’s Earl Roche was called for boarding Doraty. The power play gave Doraty the advantage, and he scored twice in just 45 seconds. On the first goal, Hec Kilrea got the puck, and Doraty pushed it through Ottawa defenseman Bowman’s feet and “under [goalie] Beveridge’s toe.” The same line earned the second goal, which was “rifled home by Doraty from short range.” The Ottawa Citizen described the final goal of the game. “With slightly more than a minute remaining to play, Kilrea broke away again, passed to Doraty to evade one of the forward-defence players on for Ottawa, and the little fellow jammed it home to bring the total to 7-4.”