I have had a passion for goaltending ever since I was a kid watching the great Johnny Bower play for my favourite hockey team the Toronto Maple Leafs. I played house league hockey as a kid, but I played as a forward not a goalie. When I played street hockey I always loved to play goal and I think I was pretty good at it. Finally, when I was in my thirties, I decided to play men's "rec" hockey as a goalie. I played in both summer and winter leagues for six years. The greatest moment in my hockey playing life was in 2002, in the True North Hockey Summer League. My team finnished last in the "C" Division out of six teams, but all the teams made the playoffs. We had some good players and I really thought we could win , I was determined to play my absolute best. The playoffs were a double elimination format and the last game came down to us playing the season's first place team for the championship. The teams were tied at one goal after regulation time and nobody scored in the five minute overtime, it went to a shootout. Me and the other goalie both allowed goals on the third shots against us. The part that's unbeleivable, but true, is that I stopped the next twenty three shots and finally the other goalie let a shot in and we won. I allowed only one goal in a total of twenty six shots in the shootout and the other goalie allowed only two. Every guy on my team got to shoot a least once and some shot twice. My team piled over the boards and came barreling at me. I noticed one guy without a uniform in the mayhem, it was the Zamboni driver, even he was freaked out. In the True North Hockey League everyone on the winning team gets a t-shirt and the captain keeps the trophy. But the captain came over to me with the trophy and said, this is yours. Now, whenever I look at the trophy, I am reminded that if you just keep plugging away, good things happen.