Tony Piroski (born June 12, 1954) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

retired professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

Career

Piroski was born in

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the souther ...

. He played the most seasons for the

Toledo Goaldiggers The Toledo Goaldiggers were a minor professional ice hockey club based in Toledo, Ohio, from 1974 to 1986. They played in the International Hockey League (IHL) and held their home games at the Toledo Sports Arena on the east side of Toledo. Pr ...

of the International Hockey League. He later coached Toledo for the 1984–85, recording a 32–42–5–3 record. In 2001, Piroski joined began coaching the

Essex 73's The Essex 73's are a Canadian junior ice hockey team based in Essex, Ontario. The 73's are members of the Provincial Junior Hockey League and the Ontario Hockey Association. Prior to becoming members of the PJHL in 2016 the 73's won the GLJHL ...

. In his nine seasons with the club, they won seven league championships, and three Provincial titles, recording a record of 286–47. On Tuesday, March 16, 2010, Piroski was named head coach of the Leamington Flyers Jr. B Hockey Club. In his First season with the Flyers, they won 26 games (26–21–0–4) compared to seven wins (7–38–0–5) the season before, a 19-win improvement under Piroski in his first season. In Piroski's fourth season with the Leamington Flyers he guided the team to a first place finish with a record of 37–10–2 and would lead the 2013–14 Leamington Flyers to their first-ever Western Conference Championship. In 2018, Flyers owner Abe Fehr sold the team to five local businessmen and Piroski decided to step down as Head Coach of the Leamington Flyers. In Piroski's eight seasons as Head Coach of the Flyers, he had a regular season record of 262 wins, 108 losses, 6 ties and 25 overtime losses. Leamington won two Western Conference Championships along with four straight League Finals appearances.

Coaching career

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Piroski, Tony 1954 births Canadian ice hockey coaches Canadian ice hockey goaltenders Ice hockey people from Ontario International Hockey League (1945–2001) head coaches Kalamazoo Wings (1974–2000) players Living people Port Huron Flags (IHL) players Sportspeople from Windsor, Ontario Toledo Goaldiggers players