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nivek_wahs
03-23-2006, 09:42 AM
from reginapats.com (via the LeaderPost)
Greg Harder, The Leader-Post
Published: Thursday, March 23, 2006

Reekie full of confidence

David Reekie is keeping his cool in anticipation of a spring heat wave.

The Regina Pats netminder has barely broken a sweat in anticipation of his first career WHL playoff game, which is set for Friday night against the Saskatoon Blades.

Reekie's calm approach is part of the reason why he's one of the league's hottest netminders heading into the postseason.

"I've got lots of confidence," he said following Wednesday's practice. "Right now I'm just looking at it as another game and another game to prove myself. You watch playoffs at any level and every goal is big and every save is big. I just have to make it simple and stop the puck."

Reekie has grown accustomed to life under the microscope.

The 18-year-old was a relatively unknown commodity when he began the season as Regina's No. 1 goaltender. He has since proven to be worthy of the job, capping off a solid campaign by winning six straight games down the stretch and claiming WHL player-of-the-week honours.

The next challenge is to carry that over to the games that really count -- the playoffs.

"We just have to play hockey," he said. "We can't worry about any of the media or any of the stuff going along with it, any of the underdog stuff. If we play the way we've been playing with the consistency we'll be just fine."

Reekie is also in the middle of an intriguing battle with Blades counterpart Anton Khudobin, who will also be making his first playoff start in the WHL. However, the 19-year-old Russian is no stranger to pressure situations, having played in the gold-medal final of the past two world junior championships.

He lost both games to Canada.

"Khudobin has proven himself," said Reekie. "He has played in some big games. We have to get to him early and attack him. I want to do my best and win the battle of the goalies but then again I just want to win the game and be the winner on the scoreboard."

- - -

Just call them the Saskatoon Pats.

Regina's roster includes six players with ties to Saskatoon: Reekie, Levi Lind, Craig Schira and Derek Hulak call the city home, Scott Brownlee played for the midget AAA Saskatoon Contacts and Tyson Sievert spent last season with the Blades.

"I'm from Saskatoon and I've played with a lot of those guys (on Saskatoon's roster)," said Schira. "When you know the team that you're playing against that is really going to help you in the playoffs. I think that's part of the reason why we're going to do well against Saskatoon. We want to use what we know about them against them."

As for Sievert, he's not looking for revenge after being cut loose by Saskatoon -- aside from the obvious.

"Obviously it would be nice to beat those guys," said the veteran left winger, who was picked up by Regina in the offseason. "I'm just going to go out and do the same thing. There's really no bad blood between us. It'll be just like any other series."

- - -

Kyle Ross was a nervous wreck this summer.

The veteran centre didn't know when -- or if -- he'd play hockey again after suffering a broken back in an offseason car accident. The original prognosis called for Ross to miss at least the first half of the campaign.
He only missed the first three games.

"After it happened all the expectations I had kind of went out the window," said the 19-year-old Regina native, who finished with career highs in goals (25) and points (56) in 69 games. "I was fortunate enough to be able to come back and I was pretty happy with how the year went.

"I'm just glad it's behind me now and I'm really looking forward to the playoffs."

- - -

The Pats are already claiming victory over the Blades -- by a hair.

"It's just kind of a team thing," explained forward Matt Robinson when asked about the team's new jet-black hairdos. "We were thinking of what we wanted to do for playoffs. We thought of blue hair, red hair, but we were afraid that would end up pink or something. We just went with normal black."

It beats a scalp job.

"I definitely would never shave my head into a mohawk," he added. "They did what they did so we'll see how it looks."

Bran
03-23-2006, 12:28 PM
The Pats are already claiming victory over the Blades -- by a hair.

"It's just kind of a team thing," explained forward Matt Robinson when asked about the team's new jet-black hairdos. "We were thinking of what we wanted to do for playoffs. We thought of blue hair, red hair, but we were afraid that would end up pink or something. We just went with normal black."

It beats a scalp job.

"I definitely would never shave my head into a mohawk," he added. "They did what they did so we'll see how it looks."
Wise move...A few years back they went red, and some guys turned orange, some pink. I think very few actually turned out red.