Robbie Fowler will probably forever be associated with those two words in minds of people who like football. Or 'soccer' for those of you who live in North America or Australia. But it's football - the only football actually played with feet.

Which two words? Hat trick. Former Liverpool FC star scored 10 hat tricks (they call it hat-trick in football actually) for England's most successful football club during his career. And one of them is particularly famous. On 28 August 1994, Liverpool beat Arsenal 3-0 and it took Fowler just four minutes and 33 seconds to score all three goals. It was the fastest ever hat trick in English top-flight league at the time, beaten 21 years later by Southampton FC's Sadio Mane, now also playing Liverpool, who needed only 2 minutes and 56 seconds for three goals. They don't stop the clock between goals in football, in case you were wondering.

There will be no more Robbie Fowler's hat tricks (or hat-tricks) since he's been retired, but last night far away from England, at Anaheim it was another Fowler who scored it. His first ever. First for a defenseman this season. Cam Fowler led Anaheim Ducks to 3-2 overtime win against Columbus Blue Jackets, scoring all three goals in the process and capping the hat trick with a fourth overtime game-winner of his NHL career.

Fowler started scoring at 9:09 of the first period, beating Joonas Korpisalo after Rickard Rakell lost the puck while trying to make a move past Blue Jackets defenseman Ryan Murray, then he beat Finnish goalie glove side at 18:26 of the second period and added game-winner 36 seconds into overtime. It was all the more impressive since those were his first goals of the season. Before last night Fowler had failed to score in his last 28 regular season games, dating back to March 4. The ketchup effect, huh?

Hat tricks of defensemen are few and far between at the NHL level. But this kind of hat trick is particularly rare. Fowler is only the seventh defenseman in NHL history to score a regular-season hat trick capped (literally, since caps came flying in the aftermath) with an overtime goal. But here's when it gets really interesting. Last three such hat tricks were scored by Ducks' defensemen.

Lubomir Visnovsky did it on March 4, 2011 against Dallas Stars, adding an assist on Teemu Selanne's game-tying goal with 1:03 left in regulation. And Hampus Lindholm also scored three, including the overtime winner on December 21, 2017 against New York Islanders. In fact, no Ducks defenseman has ever scored a hat trick without an overtime goal. And the only other player in the 21st century to score three, including OTG was Sheldon Souray, then Montreal Canadiens' D, who later ended his career playing for no other, Anaheim Ducks. Can we now name it 'Anaheim Ducks defenseman hat trick'?

NHL defensemen with regular-season hat tricks that included an overtime goal:

  • Georges Mantha (Montreal Canadiens) - 1937/12/11 vs New York Americans
  • Dave Babych (Vancouver Canucks) - 1991/11/22 vs Calgary Flames
  • Doug Crossman (Tampa Bay Lightning) - 1992/11/07 vs New York Islanders
  • Sheldon Souray (Montreal Canadiens) - 2003/12/18 vs Nashville Predators
  • Lubomir Visnovsky (Anaheim Ducks) - 2011/03/04 vs Dallas Stars
  • Hampus Lindholm (Anaheim Ducks) - 2017/12/21 vs New York Islanders
  • Cam Fowler (Anaheim Ducks) - 2018/11/04 vs Columbus Blue Jackets