Michel Pierre Plasse (June 1, 1948 – December 30, 2006) was 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 ...

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 h ...

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 ...

Playing career

Born in

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...

, Plasse played in the

National Hockey League 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 ...

(NHL) from

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

to 1982 after being the first overall draft pick in the 1968 NHL Amateur Draft. During his NHL career, he played for the

St. Louis Blues The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the ...

(1970–71),

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

(1973–74),

Kansas City Scouts The Kansas City Scouts were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1974 to 1976. In 1976, the franchise relocated to Denver, and became the Colorado Rockies. In 1982, the Rockies relocated to New Jersey where ...

(1974–75),

Pittsburgh Penguins The Pittsburgh Penguins (colloquially known as the Pens) are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division of the Eastern Conference, and have playe ...

(1975–76), Colorado Rockies (1976–80), and

Quebec Nordiques The Quebec Nordiques (french: Nordiques de Québec, pronounced in Quebec French, in Canadian English; translated "Quebec City Northmen" or "Northerners") were a professional ice hockey team based in Quebec City. The Nordiques played in the W ...

(1981–1982). Despite being a first draft pick, Plasse played just sixty minutes in goal for his first club, St. Louis, playing mainly for their affiliate, the Kansas City Blues of the

Central Hockey League The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...

. On February 21, 1971, the Oklahoma City Blazers were trailing the Blues 2–1 and decided to pull their goaltender. Plasse scored on the open net and became the first professional goalie in the history of the game to score a goal.Hockey’s Book of Firsts, p.10, James Duplacey, JG Press, Plasse returned to Kansas City as the first pick of the NHL Scouts in the 1974 expansion draft. Plasse attended the draft at Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel. "All year long, I said I was going to Kansas City. I used to sing that in the locker room to my teammates, 'Kansas City, here I come,'" Plasse told Jay Greenberg of the ''Kansas City Star''. (''Icing on the Plains: The Rough Ride of Kansas City's NHL Scouts'', pp. 41-42) In total, Plasse clocked up 16,760 regular season minutes on ice in 299 games, conceding 1,058 goals with an average of 3.79 goals per game. He earned 2 shutouts, both for Pittsburgh in 1975–76. He played 4 Stanley Cup playoff games, conceding 9 goals in 195 minutes at a rate of 2.77, including 1 shutout. Plasse won the Stanley Cup with Montreal in

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...

Death

Plasse died in

La Visitation-de-l'Île-Dupas, Quebec La Visitation-de-l'Île-Dupas is a municipality in the Lanaudière region of Quebec, Canada, part of the D'Autray Regional County Municipality. Its territory is located on several of the Sorel Islands in the Saint Lawrence River where it flows int ...

of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

on December 30, 2006.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Plasse, Michel 1948 births 2006 deaths Binghamton Whalers players Canadian ice hockey goaltenders Cleveland Barons (1937–1973) players Colorado Rockies (NHL) players Drummondville Rangers players Fort Worth Texans players French Quebecers Hampton Gulls (AHL) players Hershey Bears players Ice hockey people from Montreal Kansas City Blues players Kansas City Scouts players Montreal Canadiens draft picks Montreal Canadiens players National Hockey League first-overall draft picks Nova Scotia Voyageurs players Pittsburgh Penguins players Quebec Nordiques players St. Louis Blues players Stanley Cup champions National Hockey League first-round draft picks