Goaltender Mike Maniago has some big skates to fill
by Gregg Drinnan
For two seasons, Mike Maniago was the loneliest man this side of the Maytag repairman.
Maniago was the backup to Devan Dubnyk who, as the Kamloops Blazers’ starting goaltender, had more job security than Bill Gates.
Now, though, Maniago’s time has come. Dubnyk, 20, has graduated and signed with the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers.
The 18-year-old Maniago, then, is the WHL team’s No. 1 goaltender. So sayeth Dean Clark, the Blazers’ general manager and head coach.
Asked on Monday if the starting job was Maniago’s to lose, Clark didn’t hesitate in replying with and adamant “Yes.”
Maniago, however, isn’t wearing his new role like a red badge of courage.
“I like to say the spot is still open,” said the Calgary native who is a second cousin of former NHL goaltender Cesare Maniago. “I don’t want to come in here and lollygag and not do anything. I want to come in here and show that I’m ready to go.
“The spot is open and I want to show them I can do it. In my mind, there’s no No.1 . . . I have to fight for it.”
Just don’t think that the 5-foot-11, 150-pound Maniago is inheriting the starting role by divine right because that isn’t the case.
“The games he got in last season . . .,” Clark said, “there were times when he won us games.”
Maniago has played in 37 games over his two seasons here, 23 of them last season. With Dubnyk on the national junior team’s roster in December, Maniago started seven of eight games and got into the eighth in relief. The Blazers were 3-2-1-2 during that time. On the season, he was 7-7-2-2 with a 2.84 GAA and a .890 save percentage.
“I am ready,” Maniago said. “I am ready. I think I have proven that I can excel as the No. 1 goalie so hopefully I can prove to everyone that I can.”
If you press him, Maniago will admit that being a backup goaltender with no real opportunity at starting is not quite like winning a lottery.
“It was tough,” he said. “Not playing a lot and all that . . . but those are the dues and you have to pay your dues and eventually you become No. 1 and you can prove to everyone that you can be No. 1.
“Sometimes you wish you could play a bit more but there’s nothing you can do. You just go out during practice and try your hardest to prove that you can play.”
It says something about the boy becoming a man that he never once thought of asking out.
“No. No,” Maniago quickly responded when the subject is broached. “I was pretty happy how everything was going. I just wanted to make sure I supported the team at all times.”
In backing up Dubnyk, Maniago actually ran up against a couple of things. In his first season here, Maniago was 16 years of age and there isn’t a coach in the WHL who chooses to put his fate in the hands of a goaltender that age.
As for last season, well, as Clark explained: “Last season we were fighting for so long to get into the playoffs . . . that’s just the way it worked.”
And the way it works now is that Maniago is the go-to guy. Finally.
“It’s going to be a great year . . . really big,” he said. “I was looking forward to getting here.
“I am (excited). It’s a big year for me. I’m hoping everything goes well and we do well.”
CAMP NOTES: After the Blazers sent home 23 players, mostly 15- and 16-year-olds, they were left with 51 in camp, including five goaltenders. In that group is James Priestner, their 2006 second-round bantam pick from Edmonton. . . . LW Ivan Rohac, the Slovakian freshman, was the star of the opening day of main camp. He had two goals and two assists in leading Team Blue to a 5-2 victory over Team Grey in a morning scrimmage. In the evening game, he had two more goals as Blue beat Grey, 4-3. . . . After getting down to 51, the players were split into three teams during the afternoon. Beginning with last night’s scrimmage, Clark is handling Team White, with assistants Shane Zulyniak (Grey) and Andrew Milne (Blue) also working benches. On the line is dinner for eight, with the two losing coaches having to prepare a full-course meal for the winning coach, the coaches’ wives, as well as trainer Colin Robinson and his wife. . . . Gerard Hayes, whose resumé includes AHL officiating experience and who is one of the WHL’s officiating supervisors, talked to the players prior to last night’s scrimmages and then donned a striped jersey. Yes, he was busy calling penalties — the game featured 21 power plays, although each minor was worth only one minute in stir.
The Blazers’ coaching staff has recognized that the sooner the players adapt to the new rules, the better for all concerned. . . . LW Matt Chomyc, 16, scrimmaged last night and then left camp following the death of his maternal grandmother in Saskatchewan. . . . The Blue/White game goes Wednesday, 7 p.m. Admission is $5 for adults with under-18s in free. . . . An updated training camp roster is in Scoreboard, along with today’s schedule.
JUST NOTES: RW Tyler Halliday, 17, has been reassigned by the Red Deer Rebels. Halliday, from Kamloops, suffered a groin injury early in camp that pretty much took him out of things. “With his injury and the fact he wasn’t able to compete in camp, Tyler fell behind some other young forwards,” Red Deer GM/head coach Brent Sutter told the Red Deer Advocate. The plan now is for Halliday to play in the BCHL. . . . The Brandon Wheat Kings have dropped Russian LW Igor Musatov, 19, from their list. He was a second-round pick in the 2006 CHL import draft but they weren’t able to secure his release.
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