Ernie Higgen’s mask, I had one, full head coverage. Was a far cry from what I started playing with, but it would still ring your bell when hit hard, just keep me from getting cut, unlike my early masks.
I can remember reading an interview with Joe Daley in which he said that by about 1973, he finally gave in (as he was one of the last maskless goalies at the pro level with Winnipeg of the WHA) and had Ernie make his mask. He said that not long after he began wearing it, he took a shot right dead on (slapshot from one of the recent Swedish imports Anders Hedberg or Ulf Nilsson) and he figured he probably would have been killed had he not been wearing it, lol.