Blades’ Clarke Part of TSN Christmas Eve Show

Canadians hockey fans across the country will get a chance Christmas Eve to once again see easily the most famous goal in Junior ‘C’ hockey history as it will be part of TSN’s “Plays of the Year” show at 9 p.m.

On Oct. 21 Blenheim Blades veteran forward Tyler Clarke, playing against the Mooretown Flags, grabbed a loose puck just over his own blueline and headed up ice, split a pair of Flags defenceman with a spin-a-rama move, retained possession of the puck, and with another great move slipped the puck into the Mooretown net.

It took a second or two for the crowd to react as it seemed they could not believe what they had just seen.

The next day Blades president Matt Frain sent a video of the goal to TSN hockey analyst Bob McKenzie. McKenzie liked what he saw and posted the video on his Twitter site and one TSN’s homepage.

From there the video went viral with over 125,000 hits on YouTube. It was also shown on numerous other sports site in Canada and around the world.

On a later show on TSN former Toronto Maple Leaf, and now hockey analyst, Mike Johnson called it one of the greatest goals he has ever seen and mentioned that he could not have done it.

To prove the point Johnson, along with a TSN camera crew, came to Blenheim Nov. 26 to try a replicate the goal. Both he and Clarke took several tries at it before 200 fans. Johnson finally did score but it took him eight attempts.

According to TSN producer Greg Sands, who was part of the TSN crew that visited Blenheim, the goal will easily be one of the top highlights of the show.

“It will be interesting to see where Tyler’s goal ranks with the other plays of the year,” said Blades director of hockey operations Bill Saunders. “No. 1 would be nice.”