The short, remarkable life of Leaf’s defenceman William “Bashin’ Bill” Barilko, ended in tragedy just weeks after he became a team’s hero.
Barilko was of Ukrainian descent.
In 1947 Bill Barilko was called up to the Toronto Maple Leafs. In his just five NHL seasons, he won four Stanley Cups (1947, 1948, 1949, 1951), scoring arguably the most dramatic Stanley Cup-winning goal. In 1951, the Toronto-Montreal finals were the closest ever, with all five games going into overtime. It was Barilko who scored the winner in that deciding game, the hero for a city and country.
He died the same year in an air crash near Cochrane.