For the past three weeks, we have been accepting entries for our Baron Hockey contest - you had the opportunity to tell us the story of your favourite goal you've ever scored to win a code for a FREE customized Baron Hockey stick; quite the prize! We received a TON of entries and it was extremely difficult to choose the winner. But without further ado, our favourite story, courtesy of Rick!

Rick - My story is about goals not a goal. It was a number of years ago in an Old-timers Hockey Tournament in Campbell River, British Columbia when our team the Comox Valley Legends was playing Port Hardy WWIII. I was playing left wing (right-handed shot) and was not a high goal scorer, in fact I was a below-average goal scorer, but this particular game I scored four one timers from the high slot.

What was particularly interesting was that just after I scored my fourth goal the arena had a fire in the attic. Someone lit an old mattress on fire. The game had to be called off with our team being awarded the points as we were well in the lead.

It is what I call a real life Barn Burner.


The next four entries are our "Honourable Mentions" - stories so good that we couldn't avoid acknowledging them. The original plan was just to give away the Baron Hockey custom stick, but each of the following participants will be receiving a CARHA Hockey prize for their entry.

Roberta - Hello, this is supposed to be a story about the best goal you have ever scored.  However I have not scored a goal yet. I am currently a goalie in the fun league in Sault St. Marie. I'm planning on playing out of net next year and am super excited. I hope this time next year I have my very own goal story and I know a custom stick will help make that a reality. I am a single mom of two and I'm trying to show my kids that getting out of your comfort zone is a good thing and trying new things is awesome!


Rob - My greatest goal actually occurred during a practice drill. I was 12 years old, and as a reward for selling the most tickets (784 to be exact) to the Timmy Tyke charity tournament at Maple Leaf Gardens, I won a week at the Orr-Walton hockey camp in Orillia. For an inner city, Cabbage-town kid living in low-income housing at Parliament and Gerrard this was a big deal.

I was a big fan of the big, bad Bruins of the day, especially Number 4, Bobby Orr.

My childhood idol stepped onto the ice and skated with us as we practiced doing cross-overs around the face-off circles. The highlight of the day, however, would come during our shooting drills. Orr, poised near the high slot naturally rifled an accurate on-the-tape hard-as-nails pass, catching me off guard for a moment, but I gained my composure long enough to deflect the puck on my backhand, up high and clear into the top corner of the net!

That was the summer Orr was traded from Boston to the Chicago Blackhawks. I still have the signed autographed handout photo of him in his Bruins sweater and also a picture of myself with Orr and Mike “Shakey” Walton in front of the oversized stick and puck at the camp. But most cherished of all is the memory etched in my mind of the top shelf goal assisted by none other than Bobby Orr!


Leo - There is nothing better than scoring a few seconds away from being eliminated, even more when the goal was total fluke.

My favorite goal dates back about six years ago. It was the semis and my team was down 5 to 4, and there was just about 20 seconds remaining before we were eliminated. We had pulled our goalie and we were giving it all we had but in our heads knew that this one was lost. But suddenly, totally dominating us, the opposing team’s defenceman accidentally lost control of the puck at mid ice before he could rip his shot away at our empty net.

Luckily, I was positioned two feet away from the puck and I knew that I only had about 20 seconds to make a move. So I gave it all I had, pushing as hard as I could. I scraped up the puck and finally got past the blue line; then, all hell broke loose. I lost foot, falling flat on my behind right on top of the puck. Feeling totally embarrassed as I kept sliding towards the opposing team’s net I was sure the referee was going to whistle but he yelled “it’s still moving, it’s still moving”. Really! So I started wiggling my butt in the hopes I could get back up again and the puck suddenly popped out of under me. Still sitting and sliding, I started swinging at the puck like crazy. And there it was, I still see it in slow motion, the puck wobbling towards the net, hitting the goalies top side of the helmet only to end up in the top right corner. Not a second later, the buzzer went off. Can you imagine, I had just tied the game with the most embarrassing breakaway goal ever?

To top it off, we ended up winning the game in overtime and went on beating the top team in the championship game.

Definitely my most memorable goal ever - and this was in a men’s amateur hockey league!


Jillian - My favourite goal that I've ever scored is actually the ONLY goal that I've ever scored. I just started playing hockey this year, and was really starting from complete scratch. I showed up at my first practice having only ever been on ice skates once in my life. But hockey is something that has always both intrigued and terrified me, so I finally put my fears aside and joined a team.

As you can imagine, joining an adult team when you cannot skate yet puts you at a slight disadvantage. Okay, a major disadvantage. But every week, I go, and after practice, even though I am by far the very worst player on the team, I feel so proud of myself for challenging my fears and doing something that I've always wanted to.

Last week, all of my efforts were rewarded. We have a very large team, over thirty players, so we often split into two teams and play one another. I was playing forward, and had a breakaway. Despite being very clumsy, and lacking even basic puck handling skills, I somehow made it to the net with the puck. I was a bit unsteady on my skates, but I pushed the puck towards the net with my stick. To everyone's shock, the puck glided slowly (almost painfully slowly!) beside the goalie and into the net. It felt like everything happened in slow motion; I'm not sure if that's because it was such a magical moment for me, or because I actually do everything so slowly in hockey.

Regardless, the game stopped. The goalie looked completely shocked. The coach skated over and congratulated me. Everyone, including the other team, tapped their sticks on the ice loudly, which I think is the hockey player version of applause. A few people skated by me and tapped me with their sticks. I honestly felt like I had just scored the winning goal at the Olympics. It was one of the proudest moments of my life! 


Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter our contest; we were thrilled about the overwhelming response and really enjoyed reading your entries. We may or may not have another code for a Baron Hockey stick in the future, so stay tuned!