Blazers goalie Ferguson living the dream with Vegas

VANCOUVER Dylan Ferguson’s first time on an NHL ice surface didn’t come in Thursday’s 8-2 loss where the injury-riddled Vegas Golden Knights called on their fifth-string goalie for mop-up duty.

It was actually back in 2010 when the 11year-old netminder led the Vancouver Canucks onto the ice before a game at Rogers Arena.

He even lined up beside his idol, Roberto Luongo.

“I do remember that pretty well. I was pretty dry-mouthed,” Ferguson, now 19, recalled Wednesday. “It’s all surreal how this turned out.”

Surreal is one of many adjectives that can be used to describe Ferguson’s last two weeks.

A seventh-round pick at June’s draft, the goalie for the Western Hockey League’s Kamloops Blazers was sitting in a Boston Pizza on Oct. 30 watching the Golden Knights play the New York Islanders.

Vegas was already down to its third goalie with Marc-Andre Fleury (concussion) and Malcolm Subban (lower body) sidelined when Oscar Dansk was forced to leave in the second period with a leg injury.

Knowing that he and Maxime Lagace, that night’s backup, were the only remaining healthy goalies in the organization, Ferguson was pretty sure his phone would be ringing shortly.

“I was actually having all-meat wings, but I didn’t get them because they were about five minutes away when I got the call,” he said. “I just pretty much ran out, paid off the guys’ dinner, that was that and I was on a flight two hours later.

“I was watching the game at Boston Pizza and the next thing I know I get a call from Vegas saying I’m going to New York. Pretty crazy.” The emergency recall for Ferguson — who was born in Vancouver, but grew up in Lantzville, B.C., just outside Nanaimo — turned into some actual playing time Thursday when he made his NHL debut with the Golden Knights trailing the Edmonton Oilers 7-2 midway through the third period.

Ferguson stopped one of the two shots he faced in 9:14 of action, and also had an exchange with Oilers superstar Connor McDavid, who had a potential third goal nullified by an interference call.