He wasn’t large in stature but he had a large presence of the ice. Joe Contini played his minor hockey in the Royal City before joining the Guelph Biltmore Mad Hatters junior club as a 15-year-old in 1972.
After two years with the Mad Hatters he was drafted into Major Junior A Hockey by the Hamilton Fincups where he had 27 goals and 90 points in his rookie season. The following year he helped lead the club into the OHA finals where they defeated Sudbury in six games before advancing to the Memorial Cup. This is where the name of Joe Contini may live forever. In a game against the New Westminster Bruins Contini scored two goals just eight seconds apart, then added a third sixty-four seconds later to give him the Memorial Cup record he still holds today, for the fastest three goals in just 1:12. He ended that day with six points and that too remains as a single game record. The Fincups, coached by Bert Templeton, went on to win the Memorial Cup.
The following season Contini was named to Canada’s first-ever World Junior team winning a silver medal with their only loss coming at the hands of the Russians. On a team that featured future NHL stars like Al Secord, Dale McCourt, Rob Ramage, John Anderson and Brad Marsh, Contini was third in team scoring with four goals and ten points in seven games.
From there, he was a draft pick of the NHL’s Colorado Rockies where he played parts of two seasons. He also appeared in the uniform of the Minnesota North Stars before retiring in 1982.
He wasn’t out of the game long as fellow Hall of Famer, Joe Holody hired him to coach his new OHL franchise, the Guelph Platers for two seasons from 1983 to 1985.
Inducted into the Guelph Sports Hall of Fame – Athlete category – on May 4, 2005
