Kubic riding roller-coaster with Pats
Ryan Kubic has made a number of stops on and off the ice this season.
Since September, the veteran goaltender has been a member of three WHL teams — the Vancouver Giants, Saskatoon Blades and Regina Pats.
Kubic’s situation has repeatedly been influenced by injuries during a season in which he has experienced assorted ups and downs.
As it stands, Kubic is enjoying an upward trajectory. He is to start for Regina on Monday against the host Swift Current Broncos in the seventh and deciding game of a best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarter-final.
Kubic, who is in his third full WHL season, played in 141 games before making his long-awaited playoff debut.
“It’s great,” Kubic, who turned 20 on Jan. 7, said after the Pats defeated the visiting Broncos 7-2 on Saturday. “With the injuries I’ve had this season, it’s a great opportunity to get to play some playoff games and be healthy, finally.”
A product of St. Andrews, Man., Kubic spent his first two WHL seasons with Vancouver — appearing in 106 games over that span — before being traded to Saskatoon on Sept. 20.
He was expected to be the Blades’ No. 1 goalie throughout the season, only to suffer a knee injury and eventually be supplanted as the starter by 16-year-old phenom Nolan Maier.
On Jan. 10, Kubic was on the move again, as part of a trade that led to his installation as the Pats’ No. 1 goalie.
But, once more, a setback for Kubic opened the door for a younger goalie — Max Paddock. Kubic missed most of February with a concussion and subsequently sat out nearly two weeks with an unrelated injury.
The 17-year-old Paddock seized the opportunity and sparkled down the stretch, only to suffer a pulled muscle in practice as the playoffs loomed.
Asked about life on the junior hockey roller-coaster, Kubic responded matter-of-factly.
“That’s hockey,’’ he said. “It happens. This year is the first time it has happened to me, but it happens to a lot of hockey players, so it’s nothing new.”
Kubic has a 3.08 goals-against average and an .895 save percentage after his first six playoff starts. His opposite number, the Broncos’ Stuart Skinner, has a 2.90 GAA and a .922 save percentage.
As the series has progressed, the Pats have been more adept at solving Skinner, whose surname is frequently, sarcastically chanted by Regina fans. Broncos supporters, in turn, have reciprocated with “Kubic!”
“I just try to focus on what’s on the ice,” said Kubic, who stopped Broncos sniper Glenn Gawdin on a penalty shot during Saturday’s third period. “The crowd, if they ’re chanting my name, it gets me going. I don’t think of it as a bad thing. I look at it as a good thing.”
The same approach applies to Game 7.
“We’re just going to prepare like normal,” Kubic said. “Whatever happens on Monday, it’s going to be in our control. We’re a good enough team to win this series and, if we play like we can, we should.”