TECUMSEH’S MANCINA EYES MEMORIAL CUP Steelheads goalie could have chance if his team can get past Erie Otters for OHL title

Tecumseh’s Matthew Mancina won an Ontario Hockey League championship as a rookie four years ago.

Now, the 21-year-old Mancina has a chance to end his OHL career with another title.

“That’s the perfect way to end it,” Mancina said.

Mancina will be in net Thursday for the Mississauga Steelheads when the best-of-seven OHL final opens in Erie, Pa. against the Otters. Game time is 7 p.m.

“I wanted to come to this team for this moment.” said the sixfoot-three, 181-pound Mancina.

A former third-round pick by the Guelph Storm, Mancina was the league’s F.W. Dinty Moore Trophy winner for lowest rookie goals-against average in 2014, but watched from the bench as veteran Justin Nichols backstopped the Storm to a title.

After a stop in Peterborough, Mancina was dealt to the Steelheads in August for a third-round pick, which originally belonged to Erie.

While Mississauga had hopes of contending for the Eastern Conference title, the club also had a lot invested in rookie Jacob Ingham and wanted a starter as well as a mentor for the former second-round pick.

“Even more important to have Matty there,” Steelheads head coach James Richmond said. “The work he’s done on the ice is secondary to how he’s been as a mentor. He’s been incredible. I can’t say enough about Matty Mancina.”

But while many had projected the Steelheads to win the Eastern Conference final, the road to the Bobby Orr Trophy was far from smooth.

Mississauga lost four of its first five regular-season games and went 6-15-3-3 in the first 27 games. But turned things around to finish the season with a 28-63-4 record.

While his playing may have struggled at times, Mancina’s demeanour never changed.

“His play’s been real, real strong, but even when the team was struggling, he was good with Jacob Ingham and the coaches,” Richmond said.

An ankle injury at the end of the season forced Mancina to miss the first round of the playoffs, but he’s been stellar since returning to net for the Steelheads.

Mancina has been named the Canadian Hockey League’s goaltender of the week the past two weeks. He has the lowest playoff goals-against average in the league at 1.90 along with a .924 save percentage to go along with an 8-1 record and two shutouts.

“When I came back from the injury, it was my job to get the guys to gain confidence in me,” Mancina said. “I managed to do that, but they’ve helped me out a lot.

“We’re playing our best hockey and hopefully we can keep that up.”

Unlike his season with the Storm, Mancina knows the Steelheads are the underdogs going up against the high-powered Otters.

“We played them four times, they beat us all four, but the playoffs

are different,” Mancina said. “We’ll see what happens.

“The Guelph team I was on was the favourite once we got to the playoffs. Now, everyone’s picking Erie to be the favourite, which doesn’t matter. Our guys are really close in the room. We have good chemistry and we’re playing our best hockey.”

If the Steelheads get past Erie and capture the club’s first OHL title, Mancina will wrap up his career at home in Windsor at the 99th MasterCard Memorial Cup.

“That would be great, to get to the Memorial Cup, but we have to win this round,” Mancina said. “It won’t be easy, but we can do it.