Caps’ Boudreau named MHL rookie of the month
Niko Boudreau, a goaltender with the Summerside D. Alex MacDonald Ford Western Capitals, was named the Maritime Junior Hockey League’s February rookie of the month.
“It’s a great feeling. I’ve put in a lot of work since Christmas to step my game up for the second half of the season, and it’s nice to see the hard work paying off,” said Boudreau.
The 17-year-old posted a 3-0-0-1 record with a leaguebest 0.98 goals against average, .965 save percentage and one shutout.
He knew coming to the Capitals he would have to step up his game.
“It’s a tight market, you have to perform,” said Boudreau. “You’ve got to be consistent and show the coaches you can give the same performance every game.”
The Shediac, N.B., product was acquired at this year’s trade deadline in a goalie swap deal with the Miramichi Timberwolves. He split time between the Timberwolves and the Charlottetown Islanders before being dealt to Summerside.
“It was hard because I was still new there and just got comfortable. Getting sent over here, obviously wasn’t that bad, coming to first place in the league I was really looking forward to coming here. It was hard at first, but I got over it after a week or two,” said Boudreau.
Billy McGuigan, head coach of the Capitals, likes what he has seen from the young goalie, despite only being with the team for two months.
“With Niko coming in here, he’s a young guy and we really didn’t know what we were getting with him,” said McGuigan. “We traded our back-up, and now Niko’s numbers are better than his and we feel like he’s played exceptional here.”
Boudreau knew of McGuigan’s reputation before coming to Summerside. Now that he is here and has worked with McGuigan, he can’t praise his coach enough.
“Billy is a great coach, he’s the most passionate coach I've ever seen. He loves the game, loves being at the rink and loves all the guys on this team,” said Boudreau.
McGuigan is excited with the goaltending tandem he has heading into playoffs.
“We have a one-two tandem that we feel is the best in the league,” said McGuigan. “We’re comfortable with either guy any night and we’re really confident about our goaltending heading into playoffs.”