Peterborough Petes Alumni Featuring Zac Bierk I’m having a great time interviewing for the Sports section of ATOTK. I had the pleasure to speak with Dan O’Toole and Pete Dalliday and they both mentioned Zac Bierk in their interviews. This is a trifecta of very impressive people for this issue. The Bierk family are all very talented and creative with diverse career paths. So I wanted to know why Zac chose hockey. He responded, “Yeah, we have a very eclectic family. I know most people think this is an exaggeration but my Dad literally couldn’t skate. He never skated a day in his life. My brother (Sebastian Bach) was born in the Bahamas, my sister (Dylan Bierk) was born in California and I was born in Peterborough. So I think it was really the geography that steered me into hockey.” Zac’s favourite goaltender was Grant Fuhr while growing up. “He was one of the first reasons I wanted to be a goaltender. Later in life when I was playing for The Petes Patrick Roy became my guy,” he says. He talked about his path to becoming the Peterborough Petes star goaltender, “I wasn’t the typical story when it came to getting drafted. I was actually playing hockey at Trinity College in Port Hope, but not necessarily focused on how far I could go with hockey at that point in my life. Jeff Twohey who was the General Manager of The Petes, saw me play a game in a tournament and they needed an extra goalie for training camp. So he asked me to come in as a walk on, undrafted player for the camp. I guess I did enough at the camp to hang around and be the third goalie. So that’s how I got my foot in the door. I think after my first year I had zero wins and probably the worst goals against in the entire League. I heard of a goalie coach in Quebec named Francois Allaire who was Patrick Roy’s goalie coach and decided to get in with him. He gave me the path to be a starting goalie in the OHL and to this day there are certain aspects of his teachings that I use.” Zac played for the Petes in the Memorial Cup in 1996 in Peterborough. I asked him what that was like. He answered, “Oh man! It was just the energy of the whole city
Zac goaltending for the Phoenix Coyotes
and our group. It was an electric atmosphere. At the semi-final game against Guelph, it was just crazy energy. Being in the crease for the National Anthem while my brother (Sebastian Bach) was singing, everyone was staring at the painting of the Queen that my father had painted and I was about to play the biggest hockey game of my life. After our game Darren Dutchyshen from TSN interviewed both me and my brother. It was just a magical week and I wish we could’ve won just one more game, but it was so special for the city and the fans and the organization.” And what was Zac’s least favourite memory? “Jeff Twohey was focused on the product on the ice and the same with making sure we were responsible citizens with curfews. My brother (Sebastian) was playing a show in Toronto and I asked Jeff to let me go to the show and I would be late getting back. He allowed it, but said you’ve got a big game next so get back as soon as you can. I went to the show, then played the worst game I have ever played. (he laughed) We lost 11-1.” Zac was drafted into the NHL by the Tampa Bay Lightening. “I was one of the last picks but Tony and Phil Esposito (they ran the team) had seen me and it was a bit of an up hill battle but that’s where I spent my first year in the NHL.” Continued on Page 30 Page 29
