You may have to be a little off to throw yourself intentionally into the path of five-and-a-half-ounce block of vulcanized rubber. But Mitchell Kathler and Ryan Velan have somehow found a love for it, playing one of the toughest positions in all of sports.
The goalie duo for the Portage Terriers have been key parts of the eight-game win streak the Dogs find themselves on, with great performances each game. Velan came to the team after an injury in training camp, and says he feels good about getting his team in a position to win each game.
"Since, I've been here, we've just been winning, so it's been a great feeling. I think the guys in front of us have done a great job in that, making it easy for us on the back end. Obviously, you're not going to win every game in the whole year, so we're going to lose at some point. But we've been super locked in in practice, so I think we can keep this streak going, and it's been fun so far."
Kathler began the season in Portage and helped the team stay near the .500 (points per cent) mark in the early going. He notes that while the season didn't get off to the start the team wanted, it's been good to see the team trending the right way.
"There was definitely a turning point after our last loss against Winkler. I think the boys are just working hard in practice, and it's good to see the outcome starting to take care of itself."
The tandem both come from fairly extreme distances to get here. Velan hailing from Montreal, Quebec, approximately a 25-hour drive, while Kathler joins the team from Airdrie, Alberta, which is about 11 and a half hours.
Velan says a contact got him to Portage.
"It was through a connection that I got a chance, and Blake told me to come over, and he wanted to see me play and he gave me a chance, and everything worked out."
Kathler had a slightly different experience, noting that he has family in the area.
"All my family is out here, so I live with my grandparents; they're from Portage. And pretty similar to Ryan, I spoke to Spills (Head Coach and GM Blake Spiller), got a chance to maybe get in a few games, and see how it goes, and I'm just taking the ball and rolling with it right now."
Both goaltenders shared the sentiment that they feel if they give teams a chance to win is the main thing they are concerned with.
Kathler also shared that the team has championship expectations, and they are setting their sights on putting the team in the best position to win it all.
Velan touched on the competition between the two, and says that while they are competing for starts, that competition is also helping each other.
"Especially if you're only two goalies, there's always some internal competition, because that's the guy you're competing against for playing time. But there's always an upside to that too, because in practice, we're trying to make more saves than each other, we're competing so we're getting better and stuff. So, I think you're always competing against someone, even if it's another goalie in the league, you want to do better than them, so there's always competition, but it's nice to have another great goalie on the team. It just pushes you to get better every day."
Kathler agreed, noting how tough it was starting frequently.
"We've talked about it too, it's nice sometimes getting the night off. I know, I went on a seven-game start streak, and found that quite tough mentally, so yeah, I think that's pretty good."
The pair have split the eight games evenly during the win streak and will look to continue sharing the crease as the season rolls on.
Stats
Mitchell Kathler - 8-3-0-0 .928% 1.89GAA 3SO
Ryan Velan - 4-0-0-0 .940% 1.75GAA