Peter David Stemkowski (born August 25, 1943) is a former center and forward in the National Hockey League. Over fifteen seasons, he played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers, and Los Angeles Kings. Stemkowski is best remembered for his heroics in the 1970–71 Stanley Cup semifinals when he scored two overtime goals for the New York Rangers in an eventual series loss to the Chicago Black Hawks. He won the Stanley Cup in 1967 with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Stemkowski is also remembered as one of the top faceoff players of the NHL.
Pete Stemkowski had a solid NHL career that lasted 14 years. A useful and aggressive forward, "Stemmer" always took a back seat of attention wherever he played.
Pete was a product of the Toronto Maple Leafs junior system. He played in his native Winnipeg before moving to Toronto at the age of 17 to play with the Ontario Hockey Association's Toronto Marlboros, the Leafs' junior team.
After splitting his first three professional seasons between the Leafs and their American Hockey League farm team in Rochester NY, Stemkowski finally made the Leafs squad in 1966-67. It was great timing as the Leafs won the Stanley Cup that year. Stemkowski, 24 at the time, was an important contributor with 12 points in 12 games. But the focus fell upon aging veterans like Terry Sawchuk, Johnny Bower, George Armstrong, Allan Stanley, Frank Mahovlich and Tim Horton.
In March 1968, Stemkowski was sent to Detroit as part of the big Frank Mahovlich trade. He was basically a throw in a deal that also saw Garry Unger and Carl Brewer head to the Motor City in exchange for Norm Ullman, Paul Henderson and Floyd Smith. It was a good trade for Stemkowski though. It gave him a chance to play regularly and he responded well with two 20+ goal seasons in his two full seasons in Detroit.
Stemkowski was traded to the Rangers for Larry Brown on October 31, 1970.[1] This was partially a result of an incident in practice where Stemkowski disrespected new head coach Ned Harkness. Harkness had just come to Detroit from Cornell University. Stemkowski, a noted joker, was mockingly imitating a college cheer. Harkness made sure Stemkowski was gone shortly afterwards.[2]