While the Hockey Hall of Fame inductions are a serious affair, culminating the new inductees hockey careers, the Hall of Fame Weekend provides plenty of pleasant diversions along the way.
Sunday afternoon, former greats from around the National Hockey League gathered at the Air Canada Center for an entertaining exhibition Game. The affair, known as the second annual Hockey Hall of Fame Legends Game, provided some laughs and memories for all involved.
Staged before an appreciative and boisterous crowd, the Hall of Fame Legends team and the Toronto Maple Leafs Legends battled to a 7-7 tie in regulation before the Toronto Legends took the tie-breaking shootout to claim a 9-8 victory.
But, the game was about much more than the final score. It provided former players and their fans to take a trip down memory lane. Fortunately everyone was up for the trip.
For the Maple Leafs, the star of the show was Wendel Clark, making his first legends' appearance. Clark, paired on line with fellow former Toronto captains Rick Vaive and Darryl Sittler, scored two goals and assisted on another. The line accounted for seven points on the afternoon.
After staying off the ice since his retirement, Clark made like he had never left the Game. On his first shift, he started the play that ended in Sittler's tap-in just 30 seconds into the game for a 1-0.
2001 Hall of Fame Inductions
Editor's note: There's nothing more self-fulfilling to a hockey player than to be elected to the Hall of Fame. On Monday November 12, Four new members, Viacheslav Fetisov, Mike Gartner, Dale Hawerchuk and Jari Kurri, will be inducted into the Hall in the Player Category. Pittsburgh Penguin GM, Craig Patrick, will also enter the Hall, as he will be honored in the Builder Category.
|
A few shifts later, he took a head-man feed from Vaive and beat Hall of Fame Legend goaltender Dan Bouchard with a quick wrister. He capped an afternoon to remember just 37 seconds into the Middle frame when he scored an unassisted goal with a tricky snap shot. Each move by Clark delighted the Toronto crowd, which idolized him throughout his glory years in a Maple Leafs sweater.
"I'm playing with two guys a little older than and they have all the moves and I'm just concentrating on getting them the puck," Clark said modestly.
The first period ended with the Hall of Fame team clinging to a 3-2 lead. Its top line of Michel Goulet, Peter Stasny and Steve Shutt proved to be the difference.
Stasny, who still looked like he could suit up for a NHL team, tied the game at 1-all by banging the rebound of a Goulet shot past Toronto keeper Alan Bester. After Andrew McBain tied the game at 2 for the Hall with five minutes left in first, Goulet struck with a one-timer from the slot.
Altogether, that formidable line finished with four goals, two by Goulet, and six assists.
In the second period, reinforcements joined the fray as the Hall of Fame inductees joined the game. Slava Fetisov, Dale Hawerchuk and Jari Kurri joined the Hall Legends, while Mike Gartner, a former Leaf, played for Toronto. Craig Patrick, inducted as a builder, did not play.
All except Hawerchuk figured in the scoring. Fetisov and Kurri assisted on Goulet's second goal, while Gartner had a goal and an assist. His assist came on Paul Henderson's goal that tied the game with 1:43 left in the third period. Henderson, who had two goals, scored the tying goal against Maple Leafs' mascot Carlton the Bear, who was spelling Bouchard.
Gartner was flying all over the ice, using the blazing speed and quick shot release that paved his way to Monday's induction. Gartner's second shot came on a breakaway down the boards and a slapper from just inside the Blue line, a vintage Gartner goal if there ever was one.
"The [Hall of Fame Weekend] activities have been great," said Gartner. " I'm just trying to slow it all down, so I can suck it all in."
The fans at the ACC felt the same way, cheering loudly as the game went to the deciding penalty-shot shootout.
Sittler scored with Toronto's first attempt with a quick wrist shot. Stasny countered with a nifty short-side deke to tie the game at 8. After misses by Wilf Paiement and Borje Salming for Toronto and Goulet and Shutt for the Hall, Norm Ullman scored the game-winner on a nifty move to beat Bouchard.
Brad Park and Gilbert Perreault missed with chances to tie the shootout to give Toronto the win.
