Bulldogs mining gold in their goal
It weighs on him.
The feeling that he has to be good — great, even — every time he steps onto the ice.
And still, Zach Roy is finding a way to thrive.
The soft-spoken Hamilton Bulldogs rookie — one of few bright lights in a 6-3 loss to the Barrie Colts on Wednesday — has essentially supplanted veteran Nick Donofrio as the team’s No. 1 goaltender.
The job is his. Or at least within his grasp.
And the last thing he wants is to let is slip away.
“It’s given me a lot of confidence, honestly, but I’ve got to keep playing well,” he said. “I feel like I have to be good every day.”
Roy’s rise to the top of the puckstopper food chain started a little more than a month ago when the Bulldogs had three games in three days on back-to-back weekends and needed to lighten Donofrio’s load. He won — and more than that, he was a standout — in his first OHL start; his second and third ones, too. Then, his real break came. A week later in Sudbury, Donofrio took a blow to the head that sidelined him for four games and thrust the 17-year-old from a tiny township just south of North Bay into the spotlight. The Bulldogs lost them all, but not because of Roy. Ask his coaches and teammates and they’ll agree: he gives them a chance to win any time he’s between the pipes.
“I don’t think I should allow myself to have a bad game here and there,” he said. “Everyone says it’s going to happen, but I try to prevent it whenever I can.
“It’s my job to keep pucks out of the net,” he added. And so far, he’s gotten it done. Since mid-October, the fivefoot-11, 175-pound netminder has crept up the list of the league’s goaltending leaders. His record after that loss to Barrie was a respectable 6-5 with a 2.78 goalsagainst average and a .910 save percentage, which puts him in the top half of the OHL in both categories.
“He absorbs pucks for us. He kills plays. He allows up to get our changes in,” said Bulldogs coach Dave Matsos. “He’s building a strong case for himself for years to come.”
For now, though, that’s all it is. A case. Because now that he’s healthy, Donofrio would love to reclaim the spotlight.
And he isn’t the only one waiting in the wings.
Marco Costantini, who backed up Roy while Donofrio was recovering from his concussion, is making the jump to Jr. B look easy. In his first 10 games with the Hamilton Kilty B’s, the 16-year-old Bulldogs prospect from Stoney Creek has six wins with a 2.10 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage — the third-highest in the GOJHL.
Like Roy, he’s on the small side at five-foot-11 and 150 pounds. He’s also quick, mobile and exceptionally calm.
“He’s so smooth in his movement, and flat out, he stops the puck,” said Kilty B’s coach Ken Peroff. “He’s just unflappable.”
Matsos agreed.
“He’s a lot like Roy,” he said.
“I think our management team and our scouts have done an outstanding job and we’re being rewarded with two goalies who are going to be a big part of this.”
Matsos, of course, is musing about
the future. As for the different duo that occupies his attention — Roy and Donofrio — it was the latter, an 18-yearold from Ypsilanti, Mich., who started against the Niagara IceDogs in St. Catharines on Thursday.
“We aren’t going to be giving anyone the net,” he said. “And the message to Donofrio is to embrace the competition by your teammate, because the best tandems I’ve ever seen are guys who have been able to work together and push each other.
“If Dono goes in and puts a game
together, I’ll more than likely go back to him.”
Notes:
Arthur Kaliyev is the only Bulldogs player to make Central Scouting’s November Players to Watch for the 2019 NHL Draft in Vancouver. He was one of three OHLers, along with Barrie’s Ryan Suzuki and Flint’s Vladislav Kolyachonok, to earn an ‘A’ rating, which denotes a potential first round pick.