Hi, this is Fred Wallace with ” Off the Wire “, brought to you by Hal Wright Chevrolet-Cadillac-GMC-Buick on the Sunset Strip in Owen Sound.
What a weekend !!!!
I’m sure yours was great too, but here at Kaui, it was fabulous with the Wailua River Tour yesterday and the Big Luau.
As we were travelling I got thinking about the banner night for Andrew Brunette.
As a player, a Plater and a person, there were very few better than Andrew, and as a result there were many terrific memories the night he was back in the Scenic City.
The warmest memory for me was in his rookie season when ice time was at a minimum on a terrible team that won just over a dozen games all season.
On March 9th, 1991, the Platers hosted the Dukes of Hamilton who were in their final season of existence, before morphing into the Guelph Storm.
The Dukes were better than Owen Sound, which isn’t saying much, and on that night they showed it, grabbing a 5-1 lead in the first period of play.
With nothing more to lose in a season gone wrong, Coach-GM Rob Holody utilized a fourth line of Andrew Brunette Troy Hutchinson & Mark Vilneff.
In short order, Brunette scored twice and Vilneff added another and suddenly we had a game. Then, the 4th line hit the pines again as the Plater vets and Hamilton went back and forth playing to a 9-9 tie in regulation.
In overtime, still planted on the bench, Brunette replaced somebody on the fly, made his way to the slot, found a loose puck and whacked it home for the hat trick and the overtime winner.
I was happy for Andrew Brunette that night, scoring his 15th goal of the season, but I never dreamed there would be 50 goals the next season, 162 points the season after that, more than 1,100 NHL games still to come and a banner in the Bayshore to honour him.
Talk to you on Poalua
I’m Fred Wallace