Movie star to attend event

By John Kovach

Dave Hanson, star of “Slap Shot” movies, will be at Jason Baird’s fundraiser.

YOUNGSTOWN — A movie star is coming to the Jason Baird fundraiser Sunday at the Chevrolet Centre.

Dave Hanson, who had roles in three “Slap Shot” films about a minor league hockey team will be among the eight former NHL players who will play in the exhibition game at 3 p.m. to raise money for Baird, a severely-injured Youngstown SteelHounds’ player.

Doors will open at 1 p.m. and Chinese and silent auctions will be held before the game, after which players’ jerseys will be auctioned off — all to raise funds for the Baird family.

Baird, 27, was burned over 60 percent of his body when a lawnmower he was driving exploded July 17 while working for a landscaping company in Austintown.

He is recovering at the Akron Children’s Hospital Burn Center.

Baird and his wife, Bethany, have three children.

The fundraiser will help defray some of family’s medical expenses and other bills.

Hanson, who had co-starring roles as one of three rough-and-tumble “Hanson brothers” in the films “Slap Shot” (1977), “Slap Shot 2: Breaking the Ice” (2002) and now “Slap Shot 3: The Youth League,” said he is coming to the fundraiser and donating his appearance fees because he wants to help a fellow hockey player in distress.

For clarification, the “Hanson brothers” in the film are based on the three Carlson brothers — Jeff, Steve and Jack — who played for the minor-league Johnstown Jets along with Hanson, who originally was scheduled to play Dave “Killer” Carlson in the film.

But Hanson wound up getting the role of Jack in the film when the latter was called up to the Jets’ parent club, the Minnesota Fighting Saints, for the playoffs, and couldn’t appear in the film.

Hanson, who is friends with former SteelHounds’ coach Kevin Kaminski, said Kaminski asked him to come to Youngstown and make an appearance and play in the charity game to help Baird.

“Baird is a minor league player trying to make it, and his injuries and Kaminski’s call to help him are like a rallying cry for players to come out and support them,” said Hanson, 54, a native of Cumberland, Wis., who now lives in Pittsburgh and manages the Robert Morris University Island Sports Center in Coraopolis, Pa.

He also coaches AAA travel hockey teams for the Pittsburgh Hornets.

Besides waiving his appearance fee, he also will contribute his autographed Charleston Chiefs jersey that he will wear in the game for the post-game auction.

“I felt honored by being asked. Kevin is pretty well-known in the community. He has reached out to a lot of sports,” said Hanson, who just recently completed the filming of “Slap Shot 3: The Youth League,” and also his autobiography, “Slap Shot Original: The man, the foil and the legend.” The film and the book both should be out this fall.

SDLqThe main reason I am coming in is that the hockey community among players is a relatively small community, especially for those players who have played in the minor leagues and made it to the NHL. Back in my days — and [then] was an even tighter community — everyone knows what it is for a minor league player to try to make the NHL,” said Hanson, who played 10 years of professional hockey, with teams such as the Detroit Red Wings and Minnesota North Stars, plus the New England Whalers, Minnesota Fighting Saints & Birmingham Bulls of the World Hockey Association.

He played 33 games in the NHL with the Red Wings and North Stars.

In the charity exhibition game, Hanson will join Kaminski, who played for the Washinghton Capitals, and five former Pittsburgh Penguins — Phil Bourque, Ken Wregget, Troy Loney, Mark Kachowski and Steve Poapst — plus Mike Rupp, now with the NHL New Jersey Devils; and David Oilver, formerly with the Edmonton Oilers and Dallas Stars, in addition to a host of minor league players.

kovach@vindy.com