Ross Wilson, 83; Red Wings Hockey Trainer, Emergency Goalie

Ross “Lefty” Wilson, 83, a longtime trainer for the Detroit Red Wings hockey team who played in three National Hockey League games as an emergency goalie, died Nov. 5 in Naples, Fla., of complications from heart and lung failure.

A native of Toronto, Wilson joined the Red Wings as an assistant trainer in 1950. In those days, the National Hockey League was far less sophisticated than it is today.

One of the more curious rules concerned the replacement of an injured goalie. When the goalie for either team went down and was unable to continue, the home team was required to supply a replacement. Those replacements were usually amateur goalies, and Wilson, who had played minor league hockey, fit that bill.

Wilson made his NHL debut for the Red Wings against the Montreal Canadiens in Montreal after goalie Terry Sawchuk was slashed with an opponent’s skates. The Canadiens won 4-1, but Wilson did not allow a goal for 16 minutes and made a couple of impressive saves.

In 1957, he played for the Boston Bruins against his own team, playing 52 minutes and allowing one goal. The game ended in a 2-2 tie.

In the 1960s, Wilson designed a mask for goalies, which he sold around the league for $35 apiece. Wilson retired in 1980.

“He was a throwback,” Bruce Martyn, a former Red Wings broadcaster, once told the Detroit News. “He was supposed to take care of people, but he’d say: ‘Get up, get up. You’re not hurt.’ ”