Colorado Avalanche Forward JT Compher Earns Gordie Howe Hat Trick

Colorado Avalanche center JT Compher recorded his first NHL fight en route to earning the rare Gordie Howe hat trick.

The Colorado Avalanche’s loss to the St. Louis Blues, especially at the hands of former Av Ryan O’Reilly, was not cool. You know what was cool? J.T. Compher scored a Gordie Howe hat trick.

As you probably know, the Gordie Howe hat trick is when a player scores a goal, earns an assist, and gets in a fight. It’s named after the hockey legend who was renowned for his skill in both scoring and fighting.

The Gordie Howe hat trick is becoming more of a rare bird primarily because of the fighting aspect. Skill players no longer fight very often. And it’s rare to find a role player who could record both a goal and an assist in the same game.

In any case, during the overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues, JT Compher earned himself the Gordie Howe hat trick. Really, Compher is becoming such an important role player with the team.

The first part of the GHHT came in the first period. Sven Andrighetto fights into the Blues zone through a break off a feed from both Tyson Jost and JT Compher. He scores on a really nifty wrister:

The play starts with Jost’s hard work, but he passes the puck to Compher, who dishes it to Andrighetto for the goal. There was JT’s assist.

The goal comes later in the game, in the third period. The Colorado Avalanche are on the power play, and for the first time that night, they’re able to score with the man-advantage:

Compher hanging out in the slot waiting for a pass or a rebound is pure hard work rewarded with the game-tying goal. Because of this play, the Colorado Avalanche actually earned a point on the night.

This play actually completed the Gordie Howe hat trick. The grittier part of the GHHT came in the middle of those two plays, halfway through the first. I wanted to highlight it separately because the first two plays did not represent Compher’s first NHL assist or first NHL goal.

However, when JT dropped the gloves with Brayden Schenn, it did represent his first NHL fight.

For this being Compher’s first NHL fight, he accounted himself quite well. Especially when you consider this most certainly was not Schenn’s first fight. It wasn’t even his first fight of the season. It wasn’t even his first fight against an Avalanche player — he fought Gabriel Landeskog last season.

Here’s Compher’s tango with Schenn:

No one’s going to call Compher the winner of that fight. However, like I said, JT did a good job of staying in the fight and getting his team motivated. And, because of this fight, he was able to complete his Gordie How Hat Trick.

Unfortunately, this relatively unique accomplishment will get lost in the fact that the Avs dropped their second game straight to the Blues — a Central Division rival that’s struggling and that Colorado should murder.

That said, the Colorado Avalanche need versatile players. And JT Compher is proving to be one of those.