Fonteyne enjoying final playoff run with Silvertips
Wetaskiwin product Matt Fonteyne is one of those rare fifth-year Western Hockey League players who have spent their entire junior career with one team.
The Everett Silvertips winger will graduate at the end of the season. But graduation is temporarily on hold as the Silvertips prepare to face the Tri-City Americans in the Western Conference final starting Friday in Everett, Wash.
“It’s pretty special to be able to play all five years in Everett,” Fonteyne said Wednesday.
“Kevin Davis, myself and Patrick Bajkov have all been here since we were 16, and we’re here as 20-yearolds, so just to be able to do it with them has been a pretty cool experience.
“Coming in at 16 and not knowing what the league is all about, (former head coach) Kevin Constantine did a really good job of putting in pro habits for everyone on our team. He plays a very structured game, which I think benefited myself and a lot of other guys on the defensive end. So my first two or three years, I didn’t take too many chances offensively. I just did whatever I could to stay in the lineup and prove that I was able to play in different situations in the game.”
Playing a tight-checking defensive style for four seasons under Constantine, Fonteyne was able to showcase his offensive side this year with new head coach Dennis Williams.
Fonteyne finished the regular season with a career-high 35 goals and 88 points, nearly doubling his output from the past two seasons. He has four goals and 13 points in 10 playoff games as the Silvertips breezed past the Seattle Thunderbirds and Portland Winterhawks in the first two rounds.
“I think a lot of it is confidence and the way Dennis allows us to play,” Fonteyne said. “The trust he has in me and the other guys on the team, he identifies what every player does well and lets them excel at that. For me, it was always trying to use my speed and hockey sense to make plays, but then he still trusts that you’re going to be able to help out on the defensive end as well.”
It can be argued Fonteyne’s hockey sense is genetic. His grandfather Val Fonteyne, 84, was an original member of the Alberta (now Edmonton) Oilers of the World Hockey Association, which came at the tail end of a lengthy NHL career with the Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins.
“It’s been great having him as my grandpa, he’s my biggest role model on and off ice, just in my life overall,” Fonteyne said.
“He conducts himself in a way that I really respect and I try to conduct myself in the same way. He was the one that taught me how to skate, and whenever things aren’t going well, he’s someone that I can call to talk to and he can give me some advice based on his experience that he went through back when he was playing. He’s just another voice that has been beneficial to me both in my hockey career and my life.”
Fonteyne’s hockey career will continue beyond this season, having signed a one-year free agent contract with the San Jose Barracuda of the American Hockey League.
Yet, the focus at the moment is getting past Tri-City and making it to the WHL final, where the winner of the Swift Current Broncos and Lethbridge Hurricanes Eastern Conference final series will await.
Everett and Tri-City are extremely familiar with each other, having played eight times in the regular season.
Both teams feature local-area goaltenders, as Carter Hart of Sherwood Park will line up for the Silvertips against former Edmonton Oil King Patrick Dea of St. Albert, who has backstopped the Americans to this point.