For a franchise that has only been to one Memorial Cup in 99-years (checks calendar) and has never won a conference title in the OHL, there are not a lot of memorable playoff moments in Kingston’s highlight reel. One that stands out happened on the opening night of the 1978 playoffs at the Kingston Memorial Centre involving Number-99 and rugged Kingston defenseman Behn Wilson.

Wilson only played one season in Kingston in 1977-78 after being acquired from Windsor. He came as advertised, a rock solid 6’3″, 210 pounds – Wilson could hit, fight and create offense. The biggest hit he threw in a Kingston uniform was on Wayne Gretzky in Game One of the playoffs against Sault St. Marie. Gretzky entered the league that season as a sixteen-year-old phenom, scoring a whopping 70 goals and 182 points (Ottawa’s Bobby Smith won the scoring title with 192-points).

Gretzky was rarely caught with his head down, but midway through the third period in the opening game Gretzky was cruising through the neutral zone when Wilson caught him with a clean, bone-crushing open ice hit (Gretzky was caught in the ‘trolley tracks’ as Don Cherry would say). It left Gretzky crumpled to the ice and he would only play one more brief shift the rest of the night. In overtime Behn Wilson scored the winner, his second of the game in a 4-3 Kingston win.

Wilson finished second in team scoring during the regular season behind Tony McKegney. Wilson’s 76 points set a new team scoring record for Kingston defenseman – breaking Mike O’Connell’s previous mark of 73 points.

Initially it was thought Gretzky may have suffered a concussion from the Wilson hit, but Gretzky was back in the lineup for Game Two in Sault St. Marie. Apparently he was okay, scoring 3 goals (plus an assist) to lead the Greyhounds to 6-4 win on home ice to even the series.

Late in the game Wilson was assessed a match penalty (his second of the season) after cross checking Tom McLeod a couple of times in the back of the neck when he was already down on the ice. Six players left the Greyhounds bench to try to get at Wilson (partly for his hit on Gretzky in Kingston). His Kingston teammates restrained Wilson who was then handed a 4-game suspension forcing him to miss the rest of the series (a year earlier Ken Linseman received a 4 game suspension in Kingston’s playoff series with Ottawa).

The best of five series went to a 5th and deciding game played in Kingston. Sault St. Marie jumped out to an early 4-1 first period lead to quiet the home crowd. Kingston was trailing 5-2 in the third period but rallied back to tie it. Then with under three minutes to go in regulation, the Greyhounds Dave Watson beat Kingston goaltender Terry Thompson to give the Sault a 6-5 win and the series victory. Gretzky had 3 assists in the game. It marked the third time a Kingston playoff run had ended on home ice in the deciding game of a series – after previous losses to Ottawa and Toronto.

Kingston’s Mike Gillis had four assists in the deciding game and led all scorers in the playoff series with 15 points. Gillis was drafted fifth overall by Colorado that year and made his NHL debut the next season. Gretzky had 13 points over the five games, he would jump to the WHA the next season and of course went on to be the greatest player of all time.

Behn Wilson was drafted sixth overall by Philadelphia in the 1978 NHL Entry Draft. The Flyers took Ken Linseman with the 7^th overall pick – Linseman was playing in the WHA with Birmingham. Kingston’s Mike Simurda went in the second round to the Flyers, 33^rd overall. It had not happened before or since that Kingston players were taken at numbers five, six and seven at the NHL draft.

Wilson had a nine-year NHL career split between Philadelphia and Chicago and was one of the most feared players of that era. He fit in perfectly in Philadelphia, Wilson could carry the puck, had a mean streak, made big hits and could fight. Wilson quickly established himself as one of the league’s heavyweights fighting all the tough guys; Terry O’Reilly, Stan Johnathon, John Wensink, Wendel Clark, Clark Gillies, Willie Plett and even former Flyers heavyweight Dave Shultz when he played for Pittsburgh.

The Flyers went to the 1980 Stanley Cup final losing to the Islanders. Wilson had 13-points in 19 playoff games. The following season Wilson had a career high 63 points for Philadelphia along with 237 penalty minutes. In 1983, Wilson was traded to Chicago for Doug Crossman and a second round pick the Flyers used to draft Scott Mellanby.

A back injury forced him to miss the entire 1986-87 season, Wilson came back and played one final season in Chicago in 1987-88. Then officially announced his retirement from the NHL the following year in 1989. In 601 career NHL games Wilson had 359 points and 1,480 penalty minutes.

Wilson who just turned 67 before Christmas, is retired and makes his home in South Florida. Spending summers on Cape Cod.