Four Stanley Cup wins On April 21, 1951, Toronto Maple Leaf "Bashing Bill Barilko" is carried onto his teammates' shoulders after scoring the Stanley Cup-winning goal. The 24-year-old defenseman has emerged as the Leafs' golden kid, having won four Stanley Cups in four and a half years in the NHL. He was born in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia (then part of the Russian Empire), but grew up in Toronto. His family moved to Canada when he was six years old. He began playing hockey at age five with boys three years older than him. In the winter, they played on a frozen pond in front of their house; in the summer, on a field near where they lived. He learned how to play defense by watching his father coach his younger brother's team. Barilko first attracted attention while playing for the University of Minnesota Duluth in the 1948 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament. He helped the university win its first national title by blocking 26 shots in one game. After graduating from UMD in 1949, he joined the New York Rangers as a rookie player. However, he only stayed with the team for two seasons before being traded to the Maple Leafs. He spent the next four seasons with them, winning four more Stanley Cups. In 1953, he was chosen as the best defensive player in the league by the writers of the sport magazine Hockey News.