1950 Royal Stars of Hockey Bill Barilko

A bit of a change up here but a good story. First on Saturday night the Chicago Blackhawks and the Phoenix Coyotes played their fifth consecutive overtime game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The last time 2 teams played 5 straight OT games in the Playoffs was 1951. The Toronto Maple Leafs  beat the Montreal Canadiens 4 games to 1 on Bill Barilko's OT goal. Which also took place on April 21st.

This goal has become legend in Toronto. Bill Barilko and a friend took a private airplane to go fishing and never returned. The wreckage of the aircraft and the bodies of Barilko and his friend were not found until 1962. Which is the year the Maple Leafs finally won another Stanley Cup Championship. The Story is also the basis for a song by the Tragically Hip. 

"Bill Barilko disappeared that summer,

he was on a fishing trip.

The last goal he ever scored won the Leafs the cup

They didn't win another until 1962,

the year he was discovered.

I stole this from a hockey card,

I kept tucked up under my fifty mission cap"

His goal was also immortalized on cardboard for the 1951-52 Parkhurst set.

And the card Tragically Hip "stole this from" was a 1991-92 Pro Set card.

Barilko never had a hockey card of him while he was still alive. In 1950 Royal Desserts made a limited number of cards on the back of their boxes. They were all of players from American teams.