Zachary Bierk (born September 17, 1976) is a Canadian former 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 ...

player. He played in 47

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

games with the

Tampa Bay Lightning The Tampa Bay Lightning (colloquially known as the Bolts) are a professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, Florida. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. They play th ...

Minnesota Wild The Minnesota Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The Wild competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference and play their home games at the Xcel Ener ...

, and

Phoenix Coyotes The Arizona Coyotes are a professional ice hockey team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Coyotes compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference and currently play at the Mull ...

between 1997 and 2004. On April 6, 2021, he was hired as the goaltending coach with the

Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators (french: Sénateurs d'Ottawa), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a membe ...

Junior career

Bierk was born in

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

. He spent four years with the

Peterborough Petes The Peterborough Petes are a junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League. The team has played at the Peterborough Memorial Centre in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, since 1956, and is the oldest continuously operating team in the league. ...

of the

Ontario Hockey League The Ontario Hockey League (OHL; french: Ligue de hockey de l'Ontario (LHO)) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The league is for players aged 16–19. There are exceptions for overag ...

from 1993–94 to 1996–97. In the 1995/96 season, Bierk led the Petes to the

Memorial Cup The Memorial Cup () is the national championship of the Canadian Hockey League, a consortium of three major junior ice hockey leagues operating in Canada and parts of the United States. It is a four-team round-robin tournament played between t ...

final, where they were defeated by the

Granby Prédateurs The Granby Prédateurs ("Predators") were a junior ice hockey team founded in 1981 after the team moved from Sorel-Tracy, Quebec, where they had been known as the Sorel Éperviers. The team had been known as the Granby Bisons, but changed their ...

4–0 in the final. The following season, Bierk won the OHL goaltender of the year award, the Leo Lalonde trophy as the best over-age player in the league and was named to the OHL All-Star First Team and Canadian Hockey League All-Star Second Team.

Professional career

Bierk was drafted by the

in the

1995 NHL Entry Draft The 1995 NHL Entry Draft was the 33rd NHL Entry Draft. It was held at Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton, Alberta. The drafting order was now set partially by a lottery system whereby teams would not be guaranteed first pick if they finished last. I ...

as their ninth-round pick, #212 overall, from the

, although he originally expected to be drafted in the fourth or fifth round, and left the draft after he had not been selected by the end of the sixth-round. His first victory came on March 30, 1998 in only his second career start, a 3–1 win in New York against the Rangers. On January 8, 2003, while playing for the

Bierk and

Chicago Blackhawks The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division i ...

goaltender

Michael Leighton Michael W. Leighton (born May 19, 1981) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Chicago Blackhawks, Nashville Predators, Philadelphia Flyers and Carolina Hurricanes. Playi ...

both earned their first NHL shutouts in a 0–0 tie. It was the first time in league history that two goalies had both earned their first career shutouts in the same game.Hockey's Book of Firsts, p. 19, James Duplacey, JG Press, His final NHL appearance came on November 9, 2003 in a 2–1 overtime loss to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Bierk finished his career with 47 game appearances, a 9–20–5 record, a 3.18 GAA and a 0.901 save percentage with 1 shutout. Bierk also had 1 assist and 6 penalty minutes.

Post-playing career

Bierk returned to the Coyotes organization in 2017 as the team's goaltending development coach, also serving as the goalie coach of their AHL farm club. He previously served as goalie coach of the

Oshawa Generals The Oshawa Generals are a junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League. They are based in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. The team is named for General Motors, an early sponsor (commercial), sponsor which has its Canadian headquarters in Oshawa. ...

of the

, winning a Memorial Cup with the team in 2015. Bierk also co-owns and runs a high-level goaltending school in the Greater Toronto Area, known as “Amour Goaltending”. On April 6, 2021, Bierk was hired as the goaltending coach for the Ottawa Senators.

Bierk family

Bierk is the brother of Peterborough, Ontario, City Councillor, Alex Bierk, former

Skid Row A skid row or skid road is an impoverished area, typically urban, in English-speaking North America whose inhabitants are mostly poor people " on the skids". This specifically refers to poor or homeless, considered disreputable, downtrodden or fo ...

lead singer

Sebastian Bach Sebastian Philip Bierk (born April 3, 1968), known professionally as Sebastian Bach, is a Canadian-American singer who achieved mainstream success as the frontman of the hard rock band Skid Row from 1987 to 1996. He has acted on Broadway and ha ...

, Canadian actress Dylan Bierk, and Toronto-based artists Jeff, Nick, and Charles Bierk. Bierk is the son of

David Bierk David Charles Bierk (June 9, 1944 – August 28, 2002) was an American-Canadian realist painter known for working in the postmodern genre. Early life Born in Appleton, Wisconsin, to Glennon Bierk and Doris Ruth Steenson, Bierk moved with h ...

, an artist whose paintings are still displayed at the Nancy Hoffman Gallery in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. One of Bierk's sisters was a model and his mother is also an artist.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bierk, Zac 1976 births Living people Adirondack Red Wings players Arizona Coyotes coaches Augusta Lynx players Canadian ice hockey goaltenders Canadian people of Norwegian descent Cleveland Lumberjacks players Detroit Vipers players Ice hockey people from Ontario Minnesota Wild players Peterborough Petes (ice hockey) players Phoenix Coyotes players Sportspeople from Peterborough, Ontario Springfield Falcons players Tampa Bay Lightning draft picks Tampa Bay Lightning players