Former Rangers to help guide Long Beach Sharks

City’s junior hockey team prepares for its season opener in September

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The Long Beach Sharks, the city’s new junior hockey team that announced its move from Brooklyn in March, will kick off its opening games in September, and have brought in a pair of former New York Rangers to help the cause.

Pete Stemkowski, who is best remembered for his overtime goal in Game 6 of the 1970-71 Stanley Cup semifinals during a series the Rangers would eventually lose to the Chicago Black Hawks, will serve as the Sharks’ director of player development.

In addition to donning a blue jersey on the Madison Square Garden ice, the Winnipeg native — who has lived in the area for decades — played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings and Los Angeles Kings during his 15 seasons in the National Hockey League. But no moment is as prominent as Stemkowski’s triple overtime goal off a rebound that forced a Game 7.

“I do a lot of appearances and that is the subject that people bring up,” Stemkowski said. “Jokingly, I always tell people that I got the puck behind the net, split the two defensemen, deked the goalie and put it in the top corner. That’s for the people who never saw it.”

Sharks owner Jim Loughran grew up a diehard Rangers fan, and reminisced about hopping on the bus with friends to Skateland, in New Hyde Park, to see the Rangers practice. The Blue Shirts would later use Long Beach Municipal Arena as a practice facility, and with Stemkowski back in the building with the Sharks, Loughran now works with one of his childhood idols.

“I was the 11-year-old kid on the other side of the radio in Queens Village, New York listening to that goal,” said Loughran. “…We kind of came full circle.”

The former NHL center heralded for winning faceoffs, who has been busy promoting the team and seeking sponsors, has also acquired ex-teammate Gilles Villemure to work with the Sharks’ goaltenders. The Quebec native played much of his career in the AHL and WHL, but appeared in 205 NHL games, notching 100 wins, 13 shutouts and a 2.81 career goals against average. He was named an All-Star three times during his tenure with the Rangers, shared the Vezina Trophy with fellow goalie Eddie Giacomin in 1971, and helped propel the Blue Shirts to a Stanley Cup appearance in 1972 with a season record of 24-7-4.

Stemkowski said in the early ’70s, most of the team lived in Long Beach, and after his game-winning goal in ’71, him and his teammates went to Shine’s in the West End, where the owner eventually went home and trusted the team to lock up the bar.

“I’ve been in Long Beach a long time; people know their hockey here and they’re very passionate about their New York Rangers,” Stemkowski said. “If we ever win a Cup, the first call I make is to [Rangers President] Glen Sather that the Cup is coming to Long Beach. This is a second home for us.”

The Sharks hope to awaken that hockey fandom when they kick off their season slate on Sept. 9 at Long Beach Municipal Arena — which sports a “Home of the New York Rangers” sign on its exterior — against the East Coast Minutemen. The amateur squad competes in the North American 3 Hockey League, a Tier III college developmental league, against other Northeastern teams. The program has won three league titles in the past five seasons, and consists of 17- to 20-year-old athletes, recruited nationally and internationally, who hope to play college hockey.

Loughran said involvement with the community would be crucial to building a fan base, and Stemkowski added that the team’s performance would be a big factor to keep drawing crowds.

“We’ve got to come up with a good product; I can get all the people in the world to come the first time,” Stemkowski said. “We want to put out a competitive product, and from talking to the coach, it’s going to be a physical product. We want people to enjoy it, make it a night. Take your wife, take your kids.”

Loughran said the young athletes are set to move to Long Beach in a couple weeks before beginning camp on August 29. Though this year’s roster is not yet set, the recruits include a couple local players, as well as two from Europe and others “from Maine to Montana and down to Texas,” Loughran said.

“Some of them are leaving home for the first time,” said Stemkowski. “When they get on the ice they know what to do…but then you’ve got to get to know the community, get to know some of the people here. It’s a big growing up experience...so whatever advice I can give, that’s why I’m here.”

Stemkowski said he would not step on the toes of third-year head coach Mike Stanaway, who has helped nearly 60 athletes receive offers to play NCAA hockey in the past four seasons, including Smithtown native Stephen Mundinger, who this year committed to play goalie for the University of Maine, a Division I program.

No player in the organization, though, has been drafted to play in the NHL.

“One of my goals is to see one of these kids on their 18th birthday walk up to the podium,” Stemkowski said, “and [have him say that] he played for us.”