The puck stops here.
And McKenzie Chalmers is the goalie training to do the stopping.
The 17-year-old Calgarian, who played 22 games as a rookie for the Cochrane Generals last season, is already on the ice preparing for the team’s Sept. 6-7 training camp.
He wants to be “the guy” in goal for Cochrane.
“Yeah. For sure. I’m going to try,” says the 5-foot-10, 170-pound Bowness High School grad. “I think I’ve improved a lot actually. Definitely better than at the end of last year.”
And there’s no better way to prepare for all the rubber he will face in Heritage Junior Hockey League play than standing up to the bullets being fired by guys like Austin Fyten of the American Hockey League and Tyler Wong of the Western Hockey League’s Lethbridge Hurricanes. All are training at the NXT Level P3 camp Chalmers is attending at Spray Lake Sawmills Family Sports Centre.
“I’m coming back here to improve my skills and prove what I have to offer,” he says prior to taking the ice. He came to the Generals mid-season last year to buttress the team’s flagging fortunes in net. He brought a quick infusion of success before the heat and light of junior hockey caught him up.
“I started off pretty good. I started how I wanted to. Then things took a toll on me because I’m not used to the level of play. I went a bit downhill for the last couple of games. But I think I did all right.”
He finished his rookie Gens season with nine wins, 11 losses and an .884 save percentage.
Count Generals head coach, and NXT Level P3 instructor, Evan McFeeters as keenly interested in Chalmers’s development. The Generals have gotten noticeably younger in the last year, and Chalmers fits the team’s youth movement.
“It’s good to see McKenzie out here. He called me earlier in the summer and asked if there was any extra work he could do,” McFeeters relates. “I found him some ice time with these junior, college and pro players. He’s got a goal in mind this year to be our starting goalie from the start of the season to the end. He’s going to go into training camp at the top of his game. Hopefully he can regain his spot back.”
It’s a challenge Chalmers is taking head-on. He likes the look of the 2014-15 Gens.
“I think we’re gaining a lot of good young players,” Chalmers assesses. “I think we’re going to do well this year. We have to stick to what we do best, and that’s scoring.”
McFeeters is equally upbeat.
“The young core from last year is excited to get going again. They got their first taste of junior hockey. The expectations are a lot higher for our team this year. They want to have a bigger role. They want to have a bigger part in the league. They want to be the go-to guys.”
Count Chalmers as one of those vying for the “go-to” label.
