Gilles Mayer
| Gilles Mayer | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Born |
August 24, 1929 Ottawa, ON, CAN |
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| Died | September 29, 2015 (aged 86) Rhode Island, USA |
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| Height | 5 ft 6 in (168 cm) | ||
| Weight | 135 lb (61 kg; 9 st 9 lb) | ||
| Position | Goaltender | ||
| Caught | Left | ||
| Played for | Toronto Maple Leafs | ||
| Playing career | 1946–1963 | ||
Joseph Gilles Camille "Gil" Mayer (August 24, 1929 – September 29, 2015) was a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender. Mayer stood 5'6" tall, and weighed 128 lbs.
Mayer made the jump from amateur hockey with the Lake Placid Roamers to junior ice hockey in 1949. He was the goalie of the Barrie Flyers who lost the Eastern Canada championship final series 5-4 to the Montreal Royals, in April 1949 for the George Richardson Memorial Trophy. He began his Professional hockey career in 1949 with the Pittsburgh Hornets.
Gil stood 5'6" and weighed between 128 and 135 pounds during his career.He was "nicknamed "The Needle".
In the 1951-1952 season Mayer wore # 0 because he was so hard to score against with 5 shutouts and a Goals Against Average (GAA) of 2.57 for the Pittsburgh Hornets. Mayer was selected to the AHL all-star team for the 1950-1951 season and consecutively from the 1952-1953 season through the 1954-1955 season. The same year he won a league title, a $300 bonus, and captured goalie honors with a 3.25 goals against average. He allowed 146 goals in 52 games. During his career he was on 3 Calder cup winning teams; 2 with the Pittsburgh Hornets and 1 with the Hershey Bears.
Gil won the AHL "Hap" Holmes Award (goaltender with the lowest GAA) 5 times. This is a 1st all-time record. Mayer was 2nd all time in AHL Regular Season Play in the following categories: 14 seasons, 680 games, 346 wins, 41 shutouts. He was also 2nd all time in AHL Playoffs in these categories: 80 games, 50 wins, 6 shutouts.
His lifetime GAA during regular season play was 2.89. His lifetime GAA in playoff action was 2.27.
Early in the second period of Pittsburgh's game against the Syracuse Warriors, on February 6, 1952, Mayer was cut by a puck which struck his face. His nose hemorrhaged but he returned to the ice after thirty minutes. The Warriors triumphed 4-2 in a contest in which Mayer made several stellar saves. The deciding goal, in front of a crowd of 1,534 at Memorial Auditorium in Syracuse, New York, was quite lucky. Kelly Burnett made a baseball swing at a high-flying hard-hit puck and knocked it 18 feet, still in the air, past Mayer.
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