This year marked the 45th anniversary of one of the most beloved sports movies of all time, a movie shot in Utica, Syracuse and at Colgate University.

The story of the Hanson brothers is one that hockey fans still cherish, and one of its star characters came to Lake Placid to help celebrate the movie "Slap Shot."

"I taught Gretzky everything he knows," Steve Carlson, maybe better known as Steve Hanson, joked.

"Slap Shot" was the headliner for a local film festival. Forty-five years later, it still amazes Carlson how the movie became the classic it now is.

“We’re part of one of the greatest hockey movies of all time, one of the top five sports movies of all time, but people don’t realize in 'Slap Shot 2,' we won best supporting actors for 'Slap Shot 2' at the DVD Premieres. So a lot of people don’t realize that we’re great actors. Ha!” Carlson joked.

That Hanson brother laugh and smile. You can’t act that. However, he could actually act a bit. In fact, that goon in "Slap Shot" — well, that’s not at all how Carlson actually played hockey, a career that saw him reach the NHL.

“It changed my life a lot because everyone thought I was tough. I wasn’t a fighter. I was more of a skill player. My two brothers, they were the enforcers, the goons or whatever," Carlson said.

Never more was that acting on display than in the scene shot in the city of Syracuse at the War Memorial. The Charlestown Chiefs were attacked by an opposing fan, and the Hanson Brothers took the fight to the crowd. Carlson said a part of that scene was a lot more real than anyone would ever know.

“When we went into the crowd, grabbed the glass and jumped into the crowd, we did that scene about 10 times. The glass was cutting our hands. The fans in the stands were saying, ‘That’s really good make-up. That looks like real blood.’ I said, ‘It is real blood,’ ” he said.

From Syracuse to Lake Placid 45 years later, it's a special place in any hockey fan’s heart, especially Carlson’s. In addition to the film festival, he took time to meet with fans at a local brewery, and even hung out with a women’s college team in town for a tournament.

“I enjoy talking with the little ones, the ankle biters, the middle-aged people and the senior citizens," Carlson said of his travels.

It was his first trip to the hockey Mecca and, hopefully, he said, not his last, thinking back on where he was the day the Americans knocked off the mighty Soviets.

“I was in traction in L.A., playing for the L.A. Kings. I was in the hospital bed in traction, watching the U.S. team beat the Russians. It’s great to be here and to see where they did it," he said.

Carlson certainly believes in miracles, and he should. Over the last year, he’s lived one, battling throat cancer.

“I said, 'I’m going to beat this thing. I’m going to beat it. I’m not going to sit down and watch this take me,' ” he recalled.

On Tuesday, Spectrum News 1 talks to Carlson about his recent battle with throat cancer, and how it's changed his outlook on life.