Senior hockey history was made on Friday night in Durham.
Rob LeBlanc of the Durham Thundercats scored his 500th career goal – in his 500th game, of all games – and it stood up as the winner as the T-Cats dumped the Palmerston 81’s 9-6 in Western Ontario Athletic Association Senior Hockey League action.
The 41-year-old Mount Forest native is in his 18th season with the T-Cats.
He’s already the franchise’s all-time leading scorer in goals, assists and points, and is believed to be the first player in league history to reach 500 goals.
The milestone marker came at the 13:36 mark of the third period against Palmerston goalie Scott Walls and snapped a 6-6 tie. Durham entered the third period down 6-4 but scored five unanswered goals in the frame to take the victory, 9-6.
LeBlanc calls the achievement a monkey off his back.
It was his eighth goal in 14 games this season.
He also says it was nice to score the goal at a home game so his wife and their three children and other family members from Mount Forest could see it happen.
LeBlanc became the fourth T-Cat to play 500 games with the team and is within reach of yet another milestone – he’s only 26 points away from 1,000 for his career.
Friday’s win, coupled with losses by the Ripley Wolves and the Saugeen Shores Winterhawks, lifts Durham into a third-place tie with those two teams in the league’s North Division.
Durham has an 11-6-0-1 record, as does Ripley, which lost 4-1 on Friday night to the second-place Shelburne Muskies.
The Winterhawks lost 10-6 to the Elora Rocks and drop to 10-5-0-3.
The Rocks, meanwhile, remain undefeated in league play and bring their 17-0 record to Durham for a clash on Sunday at 2 PM.