Height: 6-3
Weight: 195
Catch: L
Born: 9 Mar 1947, Kitchener ON
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Regular Season Goaltending Record (key)
| year | team | ||||||||
| 1972-73 | New York | ||||||||
| 1973-74 | New York-Jersey | ||||||||
| 1974-75 | Phoenix | ||||||||
| 1975-76 | Phoenix | ||||||||
| 1976-77 | Phoenix | ||||||||
| Totals: |
Playoff Goaltending Record
| year | team | ||||||||
| 1975 | Phoenix | ||||||||
| Totals: |
Shutouts
| Date | Opponent | Home/Away | Score | Saves |
| Nov 5, 1974 | Indianapilis | Away | 3-0 | 24 |
| Jan 26, 1975 | Indianapilis | Home | 6-0 | 30 |
| Jan 28, 1976 | Calgary | Home | 5-0 | 22 |
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The Case of the Missing Goaltender • by Larry Bortstein • The Hockey Spectator • January 27, 1973
The case of the missing Raider goaltender has been solved. At least it now looks to be. Gary Kurt wasn't actually missing. He was just playing that way. "He had the poorest start of any goalie I've ever seen," recalls league-leading scorer Ron Ward. For nearly half this season Ward and Kurt seemed to be having a contest — could Wardie score goals at a faster clip than Gary was letting them in? Much of the time Kurt, a 26-year-old from Kitchener, Ontario, has been carrying around a goals-against average of more than five, for heaven's sake, on his back. The joke around the league was that Kurt may have started the season as one of the tallest goalies in hockey (6-3, 205), but that he was going to end season as one of the shortest. "I got off to a really horrible start," Gary concedes. "When I came to camp they told me I was the number one goalie and I think the fact that I didn’t really have to fight for a job had a bad influence on me. I was the only goalie on the team with National Hockey League experience, and maybe I thought that gave me an edge on the other goalies we had. After the first few bad games I had, I had a talk with Cammy (Coach Camille Henry). He suggested I sit and watch a few games in the stands, study what our goalies and the other team's goalies were doing. I think it helped, but there's nothing more frustrating than traveling with the team, then going to the games and not even putting on a uniform. That makes you feel you're a real outsider." Gary admits that Henry "was put out with the way I was playing. Looking back I guess I wasn't really in shape. I played only three periods inexhibition games — one period in each of the three pre-season games we had. That's because I was supposed to be number one and Cammy and the other bosses wanted to look at other goalies. About the only ice time I saw for weeks was in practice, but that's nothing. I always felt if I could put three or four good games together, I'd be on my way." Defenseman Kent Douglas, who played with Kurt at Baltimore in the American League last year, felt Gary would eventually get untracked, and has said so all along. "Gary won about 12 games in a row down in Baltimore," Douglas remembers. "He played great goal. But he seemed to be the kind of goalie who had to play a few days in a row to get his confidence, who couldn't just shrug off a bad game now and come back three days later with a good game." Kurt didn't appear in one single game for a month, between December 2 and January 1. That period of banishment to the sidelines followed Gary's most perplexing week of the season. On November 29, Kurt replaced Peter Donnelly in the New York cage in the third period with the Raiders ahead of New England, 6-4, He promptly gave up two game-tying goals but got credit for a cheap victory when Wayne Rivers scored for New York later in the period for a 7-6 Raider decision. Henry came back with Kurt the following night against Minnesota, and Gary played strongly to beat the Fighting Saints, 5-2. In that November 30 game, it was a game Henry called at that time Kurt's "best of the season". But on Saturday afternoon, December 2, Gary played his way out of the lineup when he was strafed for seven goals, six of them in the second period, as the Houston Aeros bombed the Raiders, 7-2. All that seems to have been forgotten now. Starting with the January 1 game at Madison Square Garden against Philadelphia, which the Blazers won, 3-0, Kurt has put together his best streak of goaltending all year. He was in the nets for New York's 9-4 blitzing of the Ottawa Nationals January 4, and came back with a new "best of the season" against the Blazers in Philadelphia January 10, Gary was nicked for a first-period Philly goal, but stopped 36 other shots and the Raiders rolled to a 4-1 win. His recent turnabout has lessened the pain for Kurt, both psychological and actual. "I wear a sponge wrapped around my catching hand when I play," Gary says. "I burt the thumb last year when I was playing for the California Golden Seals. They never bothered treating it. Then, this season Bobby Sheehan hit a practice shot off my thumb in the same spot. It was pretty painful — and I'll probably go for an operation when the season's over. But right now the sponge protects the area." Now that Gary is able to protect HIS area — the goal — New York could end up with one of the strongest one-two goalkeeping combinations in the league for the playoff drive. It's a Mutt and Jeff combination Kurt forms with the 5-7 Donnelly. Despite his size, Gary has been knocked down a few pegs this year before he could straighten up. Now he's walking tall. |
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Excerpts from Zander Hollander Complete Hockey Handbook, 1975-76 (by Reyn Davis) Mid-February rolled around and the WHA's leading goaltender was this big fellow ... His record was 22-8 and his goals against average had shrunken to 2.77 at that point ... Give him a couple of goals and he'll win ... He's the biggest reason why Phoenix came home from 39 road games with 17 wins and 3 ties ... Selected by Roadrunners in WHA expansion draft in 1974 ... Now signed to a long term contract ... Has very quick glove hand. |
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Excerpts from Pro Hockey, WHA 1976-77 (by Dan Proudfoot)
Two years ago, his Phoenix teammates voted goaltender Gary Kurt the most valuable player on the team. Unless his netminding partner, Jack Norris, decides to reverse his retirement decision or Roadrunners come up with a high-quality replacement, Kurt's going to have to be MVP again in 1976-77. Kurt's goals-against average slipped to 3.72 in 1975-76, a half-goal per game worse than in his MVP campaign, but he played less often. Chances are the big 29-year-old will thrive on a heavier workload, starting perhaps 60 games instead of the 40 of 1975-76. |
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