Baclig, Jason

BORN MARCH 30TH 1982 in Leamington Ontario Canada, Baclig rose through the minor leagues to become a 173 cm (5'8"), 75kg Ice Hockey Left Winger who played in six countries. In North America, he played 234 games with the WOHL/GOHL Leamington Flyers (1998-2003) for 1.42 points a game. Then came 128 games over four NCAA seasons for Wayne State University (2003 -06) in the USA, where he completed a degree in marketing, business and management, while averaging 0.66 points a game.

He followed a season with EC Dinslaken Kobras in the highest amateur league in Germany (2007), with two seasons in the top Netherlands league with Romijnders Devils Nijmegen. Averaging 1.3 points a game, he became the 2008 Dutch Beker Cup Champion, then the 2009 Dutch Champion after defeating the Tilburg Trappers in the Final. This was the 27 year-old recruited to Australia's top league by the Melbourne Ice.

The Ice strode the Australian continent for years in the 2010s, generating more loathing than worship, hunting the coveted trophy that had eluded them since their formation in 2002, until they became the hunted. Even then, they led with their chin, their fall more spectacular than their rise, demanding along the way the grudging respect of opponents, despite the aggravation of Club promotions exaggerating self-worth.

Many good players passed through the Club in those years, but its new-found success fired in large part on five cylinders—the inspirational attack of Baclig and Matt Armstrong combined with locals Tommy Powell, Lliam Webster and Joey Hughes. It seemed Armstrong and Baclig brought success with them, igniting something that had been smouldering for years.

The pair dominated League scoring for 6 seasons, setting a new benchmark for imported marquee players. Baclig led on points four times, and Armstrong led twice (2012, '14), missing two other seasons by a few points. But there was very little difference between their scoring results, year after year.

When Baclig joined the Club in 2010 he was in his prime—highly-skilled, fast and elusive and revelling in the fuel added to the fire by an expanding cult of fans in the new twin-rink facility at Melbourne's docklands. A five-goal a game hero, he remained there for 10 seasons and, although mostly inactive for the last two, he was Club top point scorer four times (2010, '11, '13, '16), and led the League on assists in 2012-13 (39).

He won a hat trick of Goodall Cups (2010-12) under Coach Watson, then a fourth in 2017 under Swedish Coach Franzen. Finals MVP in 2010, he was AIHL MVP in 2011 on 2.4 points a match, the inaugural Trans Tasman Champions League Champion (2012), and Club captain (2012).

In a 189-game AIHL career spanning 10 seasons, Baclig scored 148 goals, 189 assists for an average of 1.78 points a game. He played another 14 games in post season Finals, averaging 1.29 points a game. Fourth on all-time club goals, assists and points, he twice led his Club's all-time points and goals per season.

Baclig occasionally played for the local Melbourne Demons club in the Victorian League. In 2019, he represented Australia in the World Championships (D2A) winning the Bronze Medal. In 2021, after a decade in Melbourne, the guitarist and lead vocalist with acoustic duo Hay Bax returned to Canada with his family. He was a retail manager, Ice Hockey Development Manager and Coach at O'Brien Group Arena (Icehouse) in Melbourne for almost 10 years between June 2010 and March 2020.