Rick Brownlee was acquiring artifacts for an exhibit to celebrate 100 years of Manitoba hockey history when he realized a major missing ingredient.

“We didn’t have anything from arguably the greatest goalie in Manitoba’s hockey history to put on display other than a photograph, so we started making some enquiries,” said Brownlee, the Manitoba Sport Hall of Fame and Museum’s heritage manager.

The Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto was kind enough to loan Terru Sawchuk’s mask to the museum on Pacific Avenue for part of the 100 Manitoba Hockey Moments.

Sawchuk, who grew up in Winnipeg and has an arena on Kimberly Avenue named in his honour, began his 20-year NHL career with the Detroit Red Wings in 1950.

He started wearing a mask during the 1962-63 season, but by that time his face had the scars of more than 350 stitches. After posting 103 shutouts, Sawchuk’s career was winding down when he died in May 1970.

The mask is one Sawchuk wore as a Toronto Maple Leaf. He and goalie partner Johnny Bower led the Leafs to their last Stanley Cup in 1967. Sawchuk made 41 stops for a 3-1 win in Game 6 of the final to clinch the Cup over Montreal.

Who could have imagined then the Leafs would go on a Cup drought that is 47 seasons and counting?

“I can’t imagine (the mask) would offer much protection other than maybe you don’t get cut up as bad,” Brownlee said.

Also part of the exhibit are seven decades of Stanley Cup rings owned by Ab McDonald, Brian Engblom, Dave Semenko, Mike Keane, and Jonathan Toews.

“They get progressively bigger as the decades pass,” Brownlee said with a chuckle.

Gallery manager Debbie Schween made a lot of phone calls in acquiring the pieces, Brownlee said.

“One of the reasons we do our feature exhibits and change them up twice a year is it gives us an opportunity to put things on display that people might be willing to loan to us for a short period of time,” Brownlee said.

Toews’ parents also provided their son’s first pair of skates, a Blackhawks jersey he had as a youngster, and both of his Olympic gold medals.

The 100 Hockey Moments are displayed by number. Billy Mosienko’s Blackhawks jersey is No. 3, marking his fastest hat trick in NHL history. Andy Bathgate wore No. 9, so his jersey and skates are the ninth item.

“We have Glen Hanlon’s fibreglass mask that looks like Jason from the (Friday the 13th) movies,” Brownlee said. “It’s moment No. 99, because Glen proudly points out Wayne Gretzky’s first goal was scored on Glen Hanlon.”

For the first time since the museum opened two years ago at the Sport for Life Centre, the “decade galleries” have been changed to make room for the exhibit.

“Hanging from the rafters, every Manitoban who has played a single game in the NHL has a pennant with their name on it,” Brownlee said. “There is 286 of them and the ones who won a Stanley Cup have a little Stanley Cup on the bottom of their pennant.”

That figure was 285, but then former Selkirk Steeler and Tri-City American Brendan Shinnimin got called up by the Arizona Coyotes just before the exhibit opened on Dec. 1, so staff scrambled to add his name and pennant.

Exhibits like this often spur on collectors to loan or donate items for future displays, Brownlee said. Anyone wanting to do so can contact staff at halloffame@sportmanitoba.ca.

The exhibit will remain until the first week of June.

doug.lunney@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @dougatwpgsun

Mystery over Mosienko

It’s my favourite mural in Winnipeg, but there is something about it that’s always left me puzzled.

It’s the painting of Billy Mosienko on the side of the bowling alley he once owned on Main Street in the North End. It’s a re-creation of the famous photo taken after Mosienko’s record-setting hat-trick, when he scored three goals in just 21 seconds against the New York Rangers in 1952.

In the photo, Mosienko is holding three pucks. But why would he have collected all three pucks?

The third one makes sense, but what about the first two?

I asked Rick Brownlee, the heritage manager at the Manitoba Sport Hall of Fame, but he wasn’t certain. A Google search only added to the mystery, with some suggesting Mosienko just grabbed three pucks for the photo to mark the occasion. Others questioned why Mosienko was wearing a Blackhawks jersey with the captain’s C on it, since he wasn’t their captain.

Brownlee was able to solve that one. The Hawks regular captain happened to be injured that historic evening and Mosienko was filling in, said Brownlee, who has a copy of the famous photo on his desk at the Sport for Life Centre on Pacific Avenue.

But for the truth behind the pucks, I contacted Mosienko’s grandson, Tyler Mosienko, who answered my message from England, where he’s playing pro hockey.

“The goals were actually scored with three different pucks,” Tyler, a former high-scoring forward with the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets, informed me.

“It was one of the last games of the season and I think the first goal was his 29th of the season, which back then was a lot and I believe a career high for him. So they picked up that puck, then the next two as well.”

The three pucks are on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, said Tyler, whose grandfather was a five-time 20-goal scorer for Chicago.

Making his hat-trick even more remarkable was how it was scored that night in New York. The Blackhawks were getting blitzed 6-2 in the third period when Mosienko fired his three goals in 21 seconds, leading the Hawks to a 7-6 victory.

One other fun fact about the mural: The man who rendered the artwork in 1988, Al Senkiw, was born March 23, 1952 — the day Mosienko scored his hat-trick.

-- Lunney