Jim Mason
Pittsburgh Penguin alumnus Dennis Owchar, his wife, Irene, and their sons, Kurt and Peter, take a break from a game at their Stouffville home.
Whitchurch-Stouffville
May 17, 2008 12:53 AM
By: Jim Mason
The Leaf Nation is in hibernation. Same with the folks with the Ottawa Senators licence plates.
Even the guy with the twin Detroit Red Wings car flags is outnumbered in Stouffville.
This is Pittsburgh Penguins territory, at least unofficially.
Dennis and Irene Owchar’s sons, six-year-old Kurt and Peter, 5, are preparing to watch Game 4 in the Penguins-Philadelphia Stanley Cup semifinal series Thursday. Both are wearing Penguin T-shirts with “Crosby” and “87” on the back.
Watch a video interview Dennis Owchar.
Dennis, 55, knows much of the Penguin march. They picked him 55th overall in the 1973 NHL draft and he played four seasons in the steel city, before finishing his NHL career in Colorado (“When the Rockies were a hockey team, not a baseball team.”) Injuries took their toll on the hard-hitting Thunder Bay native.
He’s impressed with these Penguins, who were in last place and/or thinking of leaving town not that long ago.
“It’s great to see; I still have a lot of friends there,” he said. “It would have been a shame if the team had moved out of Pittsburgh. Boy, what a 360-degree turnaround. A new building coming.... and the team is one of the best around today.”
The Owchar family was in Pittsburgh during the first-round win over Ottawa.
Dennis has been back six times during the last year. He’s a regular at Mario Lemieux’s fantasy hockey camp and always does the alumni golf tournament.
There’s a Memorial Cup (Toronto Marlies) for junior hockey supremacy, Calder Cup (Hershey Bears) in the American Hockey League and two Allan Cups (Thunder Bay Twins) for Canadian senior hockey, but no Stanley on his resume.
Working in the technology industry since leaving hockey, Dennis and family moved to Stouffville five years ago. He’s far from the pushy hockey dad. The boys will play the game their dad excelled at for the first time this fall, at their choice.
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Stouffville’s Greg Roberts talks to his brother Gary every day during the playoffs.
Gary, who turns 42 this week, is the elder statesman on the young Penguin roster. He entered the NHL in 1986, two years before teammate Jordan Staal was born.
“They tease Gary when the team has a function that it’s not the players’ wives they have to watch him around, it’s the mothers,” said Greg.
If Pittsburgh wins this year it would give Gary titles separated by 19 years, breaking the record held by Chris Chelios, who won cups 16 years apart in Montreal and then Detroit.
“He’s looking at this run as a total blessing,” said Greg, who coaches AAA minor hockey, “He’s like a kid himself.”
The family has been blessed, too. One of the best-loved Leafs during his days in Toronto, Gary has included all of the Roberts crew on the ride.
“My children and our whole family has experienced a lot of things others wouldn’t,” Greg said. “For my kids to be in that Pittsburgh arena and meet Sidney Crosby and Malkin this year is something.”
More hockey links between Whitchurch-Stouffville and Pittsburgh:
• Former Stouffville Spirit defenceman Jon D’Aversa signed a three-year contract with the Penguins last year and spent much of this season with their top farm team.
• Stouffville’s Bob Hassard spent four seasons in the 1950s in Pittsburgh playing for the Hornets of the American Hockey League. He’d play parts of five seasons in the NHL, too, and win a Stanley Cup with the Toronto Maple Leafs.