There’s a pretty big smile on Carter Hart’s face these days. And who can blame him?
The Sherwood Park goaltender is still riding a wave of emotion from Friday night’s Team Canada 3-1 win over Sweden at the World Junior Hockey Championship in Buffalo, N.Y. The win was precipitated by a last-minute goal by teammate Tyler Steenbergen — who grew up in Sylvan Lake — in front of 17,544 screaming fans at the KeyBank Center.
“As soon as that final buzzer went off, my whole body just started shaking. I’ve never screamed that hard and loud in my life, ” said Hart, who is back in Sherwood Park to show off his gold medal to family and friends.
“To share that with the group of guys that we had was special — and to have my family there as well was awesome.”
Hart’s dad, John Hart, was in the arena for most of the games throughout the tournament, though a work commitment forced him to watch the gold-medal match from home.
At the best of times, John Hart, who played with the championship-winning NAIT Ooks in 1989-90, gets nervous watching his son play.
Friday’s nail-biter was almost too much to take.
“You’ve got a weight of a nation resting on your shoulders,” he said. “And we, as Canadians, have a high standard when it comes to hockey.”
‘It was one of the best days of my life’3:47
Carter Hart, now a goaltender with the WHL’s Everett Silvertips, was eight years old when he decided he wanted to play in goal, much to dad’s chagrin. “He come home one day and he says, ‘Dad, I want to be a goalie” and I’m like “What?” I go, “no way!” chuckled Hart as he recalled the story.
“I said, ‘Grab your baseball glove and your hockey stick and we’re going to go in the basement and see how much you want to be a goalie,” the senior Hart said with a chuckle.
The first shot gave Carter a bloody lip. The next one whizzed past his ear. “He didn’t flinch, and I said to myself, ‘uh-oh, here we go.’
The rest, as they say, is history.
As Hart and teammate Sam Steel celebrate their success in Sherwood Park, Steenbergen has become the talk of his hometown of Sylvan Lake.
Scoring the winning goal has put Steenbergen in some heady company, including Jonathan Toews, and Jordan Eberle.
“I remember the Eberle goal as clear as day, ” recalled Steenbergen who has been at his parents’ home in Sylvan Lake since returning from Buffalo. Despite only playing a total of just over seven minutes all game, Steenbergen made the most of his opportunity being on the ice in a 1-1 tied game with less than two minutes on the clock.
“It’s pretty crazy, thinking about that I’m going to be in those kinds of conversations with those guys,” said Steenbergen, who is a Arizona Coyote draft pick and is in his last year of eligibility with the Swift Current Broncos. “I’m happy it was me. If it wasn’t me, too, it still would have been an unbelievable moment.”