If you missed it, read Viet Goaltending Week 1.

It's week 2, I'm getting the chance to lace up the skates for real and try to apply some of the things that I learned at the Viet Goaltending school. The amount of information that I had taken is was almost overwhelming, but stepping onto the ice I was sure that I had to be better than I had been before the lessons, right?

Armed with a 4.55 GAA and a .853 save percentage, I took the ice for my team in a North Vancouver ASHL matchup that pit the Barbwire Dynamite Panthers against the Phantoms in a battle for 5th place.

My warmup was the first place where I noticed a difference. After only one lesson I felt more confident in my movements - likely because I was given an idea about the correct way to do them. I progressed through the different stages of pre game with an entirely undeserved sense of accomplishment. If nothing else, the lessons had given me a positive outlook on the game.

The first period started unceremoniously and progressed five minutes in without much action. As if to shock me back into the game, our defence coughed up a shocker at the opponent's blue line. The opposing forward had two lines between him and me with none of my defence anywhere near. Now, I don't know if you're a golfer, but I am and all of them I've ever talked to can attest to a time when they were lining up a put and felt a profound certainty that the ball was going into the cup. That's how I felt as this forward was charging towards me, as if there was no possible way that the puck could find the back of the net.

The shooter faked a wrist shot and deked to my glove side. One of the skills that we had gone over the previous week was the placement of the glove in butterfly. The arm and glove should be firmly against the body, thereby shutting off any possibility of a puck squeezing through. My natural tendency is to hang my glove about a foot above my pad, leaving a gaping hole between my elbow and rib cage. As I slid to the shooter he snapped the puck up over my pad and against the wrist of my trapper. The puck bounced safely in front of me and I covered up for a whistle. The first major scoring opportunity of the game had resulted in a save because of a basic positioning tip that I picked up at lessons.

From there I started to notice more subtle areas where the lessons had benefitted my game, specifically: 2 on 1 angles, positioning against a cycling puck and tracking passes close to the net. I am still relatively unsure of when to butterfly slide across the crease to a pass and when to T-Push, but that's a question that I'll be sure to bring up next week.
A power play resulted in a tap-in goal against on a pretty pass play, and the first period ended 1-0.

Barely a minute into the second period, a puck came at me off of a face-off to my right. I reacted too quickly and the puck fluttered under my arm for the second goal. Here is where I noticed the most significant difference from previous weeks: I was unrattled. Typically I would have been beating myself up for the soft goal; this time I was still choked, but I was thinking more about the different way that I could play it next time than the way that I had blown it on this occasion.

The third brought a bunch of penalties and more shots, including another breakaway. This time no zen-like focus arrived and the shooter managed to lift the puck above my outstretched pad.

The final score was 4-1, which is 0.55 goals allowed below my season average and, although the outcome was disappointing, I was reasonably satisfied with my performance. My goal to become the league's premiere goaltender within a year of learning to skate is in tact, if still far from achieved. I'm itching to get back onto the ice with the other goalies and work out the glaring imperfections that I'm finding. I've got plenty of questions for the instructors next week and lots more tips to let you in on I'm sure.

If you have any questions for me about starting out, selecting gear or learning the position, comment away - I don't know much, but I'd love to share the experiences that I have had so far with you.

Have a good one - talk again soon,
Conner

HC guest blogger Conner Galway is one of the social media and web content
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