SEEKING SEASON-OPENING WIN
Porter celebrating birthday in pipes
Cody Porter knows just what he wants for his 19th birthday on Friday.
The six-foot-two, 184-pound netminder from North Vancouver would like nothing more than to backstop the Calgary Hitmen to victory in their Western Hockey League home opener at the Scotiabank Saddledome (7 p.m.) against the Kootenay Ice.
“I’m really excited for the season to start and I really believe I’m going to have a great year,” said Porter, who got a new lease on life late last October when the Hitmen acquired him from the Vancouver Giants in five-player trade. “It’s exciting to be back here and to get to start the year here rather than last year coming in from Vancouver with kind of a different situation with a quick turnaround.
“Getting the whole summer to really train and prepare to come in here and have a really good year is really important and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Porter even had the chance to train in his hometown this offseason with several NHL players, including Montreal Canadiens and Team Canada netminder Carey Price, who was the WHL’s goalie of the year in 2006-07 for the TriCity Americans.
“I got to get on the ice with Carey Price and that was a big thing for me — just to see how he trains was huge,” said Porter, who admires how calmly Price handles himself in pressure situations.
“That was probably one of the biggest things I picked up from him, but another thing was everything that he does — whether it be in the morning, at night, during the day, at the rink or away from the rink — it’s all geared toward what’s going to be best for him when he’s performing, so that was big too.”
In 43 games last season (41 with the Hitmen), Porter compiled a 25-11-2 record to go with a 3.04 goals against average, a .885 save percentage and three shutouts.
If it were up to him, Porter would like to start every game for Calgary, but he realizes that coach Mark French has other options in Kyle Dumba and Nik Amundrud, who both had solid performances during training camp and in preseason games.
“The biggest thing for me is that I’ve got to earn it every day,” said Porter, who will get the start on opening night against the Ice. “That’s my goal, earn it every day and get better every day too.”
Although French definitely likes Porter’s attitude, he wouldn’t go so far as to say that Porter has locked down the No. 1 job in net just yet.
“As a coach, you’d want your goalie to want to play every game and be the guy,” said French. “That’s the mentality. I can tell you he’s not going to, but you want a guy with that assumption that he wants to be in the net and play all those situations.”
Since Amundrud is currently out indefinitely with a lower-body injury, French said Dumba will most likely start in net on Saturday when the Hitmen travel to Cranbrook to face the Ice in the back end of their season-opening home-and-home series.
“I thought Kyle played really well down the stretch in pre-season,” said French. “I think we’ll probably end up splitting the goaltending duties this weekend and give both the chance to start and see which one comes out on top.”
With seven Hitmen players still away at NHL training camps, French said he’s going to count on forwards Taylor Sanheim and Tyler Mrkonjic as well as defenceman Micheal Zipp to lead the way this weekend.
“We’ll really rely on Taylor, Tyler and Micheal to provide that veteran leadership and kind of steady the ship in there a little bit and calm the nerves of some of the younger guys and really lead us on the ice as well,” he said.
Sanheim and Zipp are the only two Hitmen players who have suited up for Calgary’s home opener in each of the past two years at the ’Dome and this will be their last chance for the 20-year-old vets to enjoy the experience before graduating from the WHL after this season.
“It’s always usually a pretty good crowd, so when you get to walk out when they call your name, it’s pretty awesome,” said Sanheim.