Editor’s note: Part of a series of stories on the Greater Flint Area Sports Hall of Fame’s Class of 2018. Submitted by the GFASHOF.
It was after midnight in the bowels of IMA Sports Arena on March 3, 1991, nearly four hours after the hockey game began on March 2, 1991.
“It’s past my curfew,” said a smiling Tim Thomas, Davison High School’s junior goaltender.
Davison and Port Huron Northern players would’ve already been home in their beds if not for a goaltending performance for the ages by Thomas.
Thomas made 62 saves, 38 of them in the six overtime periods, as Davison won, 3-2, in a Class A regional championship game against the heavily favored Huskies.
At the time, it was the longest game in the history of Michigan high school hockey, taking 86 minutes and 49 seconds before Mark Everett completed his hat trick to send the Cardinals into the state quarterfinals. Davison was outshot, 64-36.
“I didn’t want to lose and go home,” Thomas said. “I was just thinking about how great this team is and the people on it.”
The legend of Tim Thomas began that night.
No doubt, Thomas was a great high school goaltender. But being a great high school player in Michigan usually comes with limits, particularly in Thomas’ era.
The best high school players might play college hockey, but not at the NCAA Division I level. And they could certainly dismiss any silly notions of making the Olympics or playing in the National Hockey League.
When Thomas was at Davison, only one Michigan high school player had ever made it to the NHL. Mike Donnelly, a 10-year NHL veteran, played one season for Livonia Franklin in 1980-81.
Hockey isn’t like other high school sports. When Glen Rice played basketball at Flint Northwestern or Mark Ingram played football for Grand Blanc and Flint Southwestern, you got the feeling you were watching a future NBA or NFL player.
But in hockey, the best players don’t usually play for their high school teams, choosing instead to play for elite travel teams.
Thomas was a late bloomer who played three seasons at Davison, but temporarily gave up his goalie pads when he joined the team in 1989-90.
“Davison had a senior goalie (Al Sumner), so I started out playing forward and defense for the first couple games,” Thomas said. “The senior goalie went to the coach, because I was practicing as a goalie and he said, ‘Hey, this kid’s better than me.’ The senior goalie switched to defense and I switched to goalie.”
Thomas got the opportunity to play lower-level junior hockey in Waterford after high school, earning the attention of the University of Vermont. Thomas signed with Vermont, helping to usher in the greatest stretch in that school’s history. As a junior, he backstopped the Catamounts to the 1996 NCAA semifinals where they lost to Colorado College in double overtime, 4-3.
He graduated from Vermont as its career leader in victories (81), shutouts (10), save percentage (.914) and goals against average (2.70).
Thomas was drafted by the Quebec Nordiques in the ninth round of the 1994 NHL Entry Draft, but he would travel a long and winding road before finally reaching the big time.
He played in Finland, Sweden and three different North American minor leagues before making his NHL debut for the Boston Bruins on Oct. 19, 2002 at Edmonton. He was 28 years old, an age at which players are no longer considered prospects and are often thrown on the scrap heap in favor of the next shiny new thing.
But Thomas is nothing if not persistent.
“Timmy’s a great goaltender when he challenges himself to prove everybody wrong,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said in 2011. “That’s been his strength from day one.”
Thomas not only made the NHL, he became one of the league’s top goaltenders for most of his eight full seasons in the league. He won the Vezina Trophy in 2008-09 as the NHL’s best goalie.
In 2010, Thomas fulfilled a lifelong dream when he was named to the United States Olympic team that won a silver medal in Vancouver. He was the backup goalie to Ryan Miller, who surrendered Sidney Crosby’s iconic overtime goal in the gold medal game.
Thomas was one of numerous hockey players in the United States who were impacted by the 1980 Miracle on Ice team.
“My goal as a kid was to play in the Olympics; it wasn’t to play in the NHL,” Thomas said. “Jim Craig became a hero of mine. In my school pictures when I was 7 or 8, I was in a USA track suit. The Olympics came around the middle of my first season in hockey. I was a forward, but the next season I changed to goalie because of Jim Craig and the Olympics.”
Thomas experienced the ultimate thrill in hockey the following year when he backstopped the Bruins to their first Stanley Cup since 1972. He made 37 saves in Game 7 of the Cup Final at Vancouver to get a shutout and clinch the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player in the playoffs.
"It's literally a dream come true, just like it is for everybody on our team," Thomas said during the Cup celebration. "At 37, this may have been my only shot at it. I'm so happy I was able to take advantage of it.”
Teammate Mark Recchi, a future Hall of Famer, said: “I don't think
I've seen goaltending like that — ever. I don't know if we'll ever see something that special again."
Thomas won his second Vezina Trophy that season, which begs the question: Is he a Hall of Famer?
Consider this: Only five goaltenders have won multiple Vezinas, a Conn Smythe and a Stanley Cup. Those achievements are on the Hall of Fame plaques of Glenn Hall, Ken Dryden, Bernie Parent and Patrick Roy.
Tim Thomas is the only other goaltender with those items on his resume.
Longevity could work against him, as he played only eight full seasons, appearing in 426 games. But from the 2007-08 to the 2011-12 seasons, it can be argued that Thomas was the best goaltender in the NHL.
Nominations for the GFASHOF can only be made by the public. Nominations for 2019 must be submitted by April 1, 2019. To nominate an individual or team, go to gfashof.org