The storied Chicago Blackhawks marked their 100th anniversary at the beginning of this season, celebrating their six Stanley Cup wins and honouring players like the late Bobby Hull and Stan Mikita.

​

The team held a ceremony on Oct. 11 that featured past stars like Jeremy Roenick and current standout Connor Bedard prior to a game against the Montreal Canadiens.

​

On hand was a Kingston goaltender who played just 24 minutes with the Original Six team in two games during the 1980s.

​

“I was surprised that they included me,” confesses Chris Clifford over the phone from his Kingston law office of Bergeron Clifford, one of the province’s leading personal injury firms.

​

“But the organization has always taken the attitude that if you played in one game you’re part of the group forever.”  

​

Clifford’s two-game NHL career saw him achieve an unblemished 0.0 goals against average. It’s a feat shared with only a handful of goalies.

​

So how did he get there? It all started when he was still a teenager with the Kingston Canadians in the Ontario Hockey League.

​

One day after practice in 1985, coach Jim Dorey (the former Toronto Maple Leafs star), called him into his office. “You’re needed in Chicago,” Dorey told him.

​

Clifford was stunned by the news that the Hawks would be calling up a young goalie from junior hockey. “They had a number of injuries and I’m not sure how many choices they had,” he recalls.

​

His parents dropped him off at the Kingston train station and he took the train to the Windy City. The rink was in a tough part of town that cabbies refused to go to late at night.

​

“After practice one night, I couldn’t find a taxi so I decided to walk the 15 blocks back to the hotel – through a rough neighborhood. When the team found out, they were pretty mad. I was lucky to have survived the experience.”

​

He dressed for a number of games but never expected to be more than a backup goalie. Then one night in Buffalo, Chicago netminder Murray Bannerman was struggling, having let in seven goals in the first two periods.

​

Clifford was sent in, settling into a routine of following the players and keeping his eye on the puck. Then play stopped and he waited for it to restart. Nothing happened. The players and officials were hanging out by the faceoff circle.

​

“I wanted to get going,” he recalls. “I was yelling at the linesman to just drop the puck.”

​

Finally, one of the Chicago players skated over and whispered to him that it was a TV timeout and they had to wait until the commercials ended.

​

“I had never been involved in a game with TV timeouts before,” Clifford says. “It was a little embarrassing.”

​

During that third period, he stopped every shot he faced, including a breakaway by legendary Sabres star Gilbert Perreault. While Chicago lost the game, they did win the third period with Clifford in net. And he held Buffalo scoreless.

​

After being sent back to Kingston, Clifford had another astonishing experience. In January 1986 during a game against the Marlies, the Toronto squad pulled their goalie in a last-minute comeback attempt. Clifford stopped a shot, dropped the puck and fired a backhand down the middle of the ice. Teammate Mike Maurice deftly blocked the Marlies from getting to the puck and it rolled into the net.

​

The crowd went wild as Clifford became the first OHL goalie to score a goal.

​

Drafted in the sixth round of the 1984 entry draft, he rode the buses in the minor leagues for seven years with Chicago and Pittsburgh. In 1989, he got a second chance to play for Chicago when the coach pulled Ed Belfour for four minutes – once again in Buffalo. Clifford repeated his flawless record, not letting in a single goal.

​

That ended his NHL career. It was short but he achieved a flawless 0.0 goals against average.

However, Clifford didn’t leave emptyhanded. Following his first foray, Chicago assistant coach Roger Neilson grabbed him on his way out of the arena. Known as Captain Video, Neilson was a pioneer in using film as a coaching tool. He handed Clifford a video of the game so that he would have it as a souvenir.

​

While riding those buses in the minor leagues, Clifford was slowly making his way through university courses. After hanging up his skates, he went on to law school at Queen’s University, eventually becoming one of the province’s top personal injury lawyers.

​

He contrasts the pressure of playing in a sold-out arena with standing up in a courtroom.

​

“There’s a feeling of fear and excitement about tending goal before a crowd of 17,000 people. But that’s just a game. In the courtroom, you are dealing with people’s lives and well-being. The hockey game is a bit more personal – you’ve worked hard to get there and you’re proud of it.”

​

The anniversary celebration game in October saw the Blackhawks fall 3-2 to the Canadiens. Nevertheless, it was a fabulous experience for Clifford.

​

“When I saw all of the alumni at the game, I was immediately taken back 35 years,” he recalls. “At the end of the day and you’re not playing anymore, it’s all about the relationships that you developed. It’s a team sport and you’re looking after each other – both on and off the ice.”

​

In December 2019, the Kingston Frontenacs honoured Chris Clifford by raising his Number 29 to the rafters and wearing Kingston Canadians sweaters that evening. Always gracious, Clifford insisted that a list of all of his teammates be inserted into the banner before it was raised at the ceremony.