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Dan Cleary brings home the Cup

It took Dan Cleary a long time to hit his stride as a hockey player. After stints in the minor leagues and bouncing around the NHL in Chicago, Edmonton and Phoenix, the winger landed in Detroit in 2005 and found a home. It's with the Red Wings that Cleary makes history in 2008 as the first player from Newfoundland to have his name engraved on the Stanley Cup. In this report from CBC Radio, an enthusiastic hometown crowd in Harbour Grace, N.L., greets Cleary and the Cup on Canada Day, 2008. 
• Born in Carbonear, N.L. (the town closest to Harbour Grace with a hospital) in 1978, Daniel Cleary had a remarkable junior career in which he amassed 323 points over four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League. But he failed to live up to that promise in the NHL until he tried out for the Red Wings in 2005.

• "It just took me a while, I think, to find myself, my confidence. You really have to work at this game to be good at it," Cleary told CBCSports.ca February 2008. "I've totally changed the way I live, on and off the ice. The dedication I've put towards everything, I'm proud of that. My work ethic, on and off the ice, I'm proud of that."

• Cleary was the first player to bring the Stanley Cup to Newfoundland and Labrador. To that point, only 26 athletes from the province had played hockey in the NHL.

Medium: Radio
Program: The World At Six
Broadcast Date: July 1, 2008
Guest(s): Brian Bateman, Daniel Cleary, Melissa Lang, Renee Mercer, Danny Williams
Host: Dave Seglins
Reporter: Vik Adhopia
Duration: 2:52
Photo: Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

Last updated: April 30, 2013

Page consulted on September 16, 2013

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