LaFontaine winning games and fans
When you’re winning, everything else falls into place, Penticton goalie says
Fans of the Penticton Vees are keen on Jack LaFontaine. Vancouver Canucks’ fans could take a liking to him over the next couple of paragraphs.
The netminder is one of the main reasons the Vees are contenders yet again in the BCHL. He’s come to Penticton for his final year of junior eligibility, heading west after spending last season as a teammate of Canucks’ prospect Quinn Hughes with the University of Michigan Wolverines.
“Quinn Hughes is the best skater I’ve ever seen,” said the 21-year-old LaFontaine, a Mississauga, Ont., product who, we should mention, played with Toronto Maple Leafs’ forward Mitch Marner and against Chicago Blackhawks’ forward Dylan Strome in midget hockey.
“Quinn can turn on a dime. He can accelerate better than anybody. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. He’s something else. I’ll tell you right now, he’s a stud. Everyone in Vancouver is raving about Elias Pettersson, but this guy is something else, too.
“If you’re a Canucks’ fan, it’s a pretty exciting time.”
Oddly enough, it was former Canucks’ winger Bill Muckalt who helped connect LaFontaine with the Vees. Muckalt is the associate coach with the Wolverines, the top lieutenant of bench boss Mel Pearson. Last season, LaFontaine lost the starter’s job to fellow sophomore Hayden Lavigne and LaFontaine says the Michigan coaches were honest with him after the campaign, explaining they didn’t see him receiving much playing time for them moving forward.
He returned to junior hockey this season, with hopes of landing on another NCAA team for the 2019-20 campaign. Muckalt speaks regularly with Vees’ general manager/coach Fred Harbinson, knew that Penticton was looking for a goalie, too, and suggested LaFontaine as a possibility.
Harbinson connected with LaFontaine. As the Vees’ luck would have it, LaFontaine grew up in the same Mississauga neighbourhood as Mat Robson, 22, who was Penticton’s starting goalie in 201617. Penticton went to the RBC Cup national tournament that season and lost to the eventual champion Cobourg Cougars in the semifinals.
“Mat said it was the best place to play, both on the ice and away from the rink,” said LaFontaine. “He had nothing but good things to say.”
It has worked out. LaFontaine, a 6-3, 199-pounder, was second in wins (27), goals against average (2.26) and save percentage (.920) in the BCHL as of Thursday morning.
The Vees (34-14-3-2) are first in the Interior Division, four points up on the Merritt Centennials (31-15-4-3) with five games left in the regular season.
“I just wanted to win hockey games,” said LaFontaine, who got one lone start in Michigan’s final 23 games last season. “It had been a while since I had really played. I wanted to win some games, because when you win, everything else seems to fall into place.”
He’s not your typical BCHLer. Before heading to Michigan, he was a thirdround pick of the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, the sixth netminder selected. He’s such a fan of the game and position that he can talk about the late, great Terry Sawchuk, something he claims is an offshoot of repeatedly reading the Hockey Encyclopedia as a youngster.
He has next year mapped out. He’s committed to the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Their starting goalie happens to be Robson, although there’s some suggestion he could give up his senior season and sign a professional deal as a free agent.
Robson is 9-10-4, with a 3.09 goals against and a .916 save percentage.
“I’m copying his path in a sense,” said LaFontaine. “It’s cool. He’s having himself one heck of a year there, giving them a chance to win every night.
“I trust Robby. He’s going to tell me what it’s really like there. And the coaches have been great. They’ve said, ‘You have an opportunity, and that’s all we can guarantee you.’ That’s fine. That’s hockey.”