Then there’s that beer-league defenceman who punched Tie Domi and lived to brag about it. A guy who wears a tie all day long as an adult is still talking about how he deked out Roberto Luongo, back when they both played midget hockey.   A kid finishing up university still smiles while thinking of the time he bodychecked Sidney Crosby through the boards when he was 12.

At least that’s how the story gets told now.

In Canada, if you’ve played hockey in any meaningful way, someone you skated with or against, in the rink or on the street, is very likely living out your NHL dream. If you’ve strapped on skates in this country, chances are good you’ve played hockey with someone who got good. Really good.

Or so the legends go. And grow. The stories are told again and again. Everyone has one.

Mark Giordano is mine.

The 27-year-old Calgary Flames defenceman — who recently signed a five-year deal played with me for only one season. We won the provincial championship “Buckland Cup”, as members of the “tier-2 Junior A” Brampton Capitals in 2002. I played goal.

The team was stacked with talent, and put up an incredible playoff campaign. Up 3-2 in the final series against the Wellington Dukes, we pulled out a Game 6 comeback — down four, five, probably six goals, halfway through the second — to win the championship in overtime with a goal from our captain, Kenny Sousa.

The victory, I’ve long argued, should have a display case in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Giordano, who grew up in North York, is back in town Saturday as the Leafs host the Flames. While waiting to catch a flight from Carolina to Ottawa with the Flames earlier this week, the team’s media guy handed him the phone. On the other end of the line was “a guy-who-says-he-once-played-net-behind-Mark-Giordano.”

We chit-chat for a moment as I wait to ask him about that incredible team. I know I remember. But does he?

“It was a fun year,” he reflects graciously. “It was pretty cool. A pretty good team.”

A pretty good team? For me it was the best it got.

Giordano knows the names of our old coaches and many of the players. I’m surprised, really, by how much he remembers. He laughs, thinking back of that season, so many years ago, when, for him, it really all took off. My peak was only the beginning of his career. After we won the provincials, he went on to play two seasons with Owen Sound in the OHL.

“I didn’t stay in touch with too many guys,” he says. “I’ve seen them here and there around Toronto, in the summers, maybe. But it’s tough. Everyone goes their separate ways.”

Giordano’s way wasn’t an easy one. Undrafted at the end of his junior career, Giordano was given a shot with the Flames organization. He made the most of it. His play last season had a lot to do with Dion Phaneuf being traded to the Maple Leafs.

He’s happy to hear from former teammates, he assures me. “Yeah, it happens a lot,” he says. “A lot of guys I played with, they’ll send me an email quick.”

Tonight’s game is his third in Toronto. He scored two goals in his first against the Leafs, which was also the first NHL game with his parents in the stands.

He’s still in of awe of play with superstars like Jarome Iginla and Miikka Kiprusoff. And, hey, even Giordano has a guy he brags about being on his team early on.

No, it’s not me.

“It’s cool. There are some guys playing in the NHL that I played with when I was younger — like Matt Moulson in New York,” he says of the left winger with the Islanders. “When we were 8 or 9-years-old we played together all way the up. And the next thing you know he’s in the NHL.”

Giordano still trains in Toronto in the summers. One of the buddies he has kept in touch with is Mike Verrelli, who he met in junior kindergarten, and grew up playing minor hockey, street hockey, and pond hockey with. Verrelli was the best man in Giordano’s wedding.

“I watch every game,” Verrelli says of his best friend. “It makes me just as happy that he made it. One out of two is pretty good.” They joined the Brampton Capitals together. “It was the best team I ever played for, that’s for sure,” Verrelli says, of what we accomplished.

Some elements stand out in his mind more than others though: “Mark had 24 goals in the playoffs.”

Yet while Giordano’s career took off, Verrelli hung up his skates a year after our provincial championship. I played two years in university, and did the same with my goalie pads.

“I just shut it down,” Verrelli says. “I just made a decision. I didn’t get a chance to make it to the NHL, so I got an education and went into the workforce.”

Giordano’s hockey epitaph has yet to be written. Verrelli’s and mine hangs from a wooden rafter on a dusty banner in the corner of Brampton Memorial Gardens:

“Brampton Capitals OHA Junior A — Buckland Cup Champions — 2001-2002”.

It’s also a reminder. On the ice, we can be just an acquaintance away from our dreams.

Mark Giordano played in the Ontario Ball Hockey Association in the Downsview Minor Ball Hockey League for the Stars leading his team to the Metro Cup Junior Championship in 2001. He returned to play in the Premier Ball Hockey League for the Vaughan Jets before heading to the NHL and Calgary Flames and as they say the rest is history.