October 19, 2011
Posted in Alberta Edition, Midget
By Ryan Laverty /
Cut a year ago despite a stellar tryout for his hometown Leduc Chrysler Oil Kings, goaltender Kevin Verhoeff has opened his Alberta Midget Hockey League career with a bang.
The 1994-born Verhoeff has posted a perfect 3-0-0 record to start the 2011/12 campaign thanks to a league best 1.00 goals against average and a save percentage of 95.5. He’s also a big reason for the Oil Kings 5-1-0 start to the year.
Which sort of begs the question: how did this guy end up in Midget AA a year ago?
“I will say that Kevin was the second best goalie that I had in camp last year, but I let him go so that I could give a shot to a kid who I didn’t think got a fair shake the year before,” said Oil Kings head coach Greg Stamler. “That was a very tough conversation to have and Kevin was very upset with me at the time and I understood why.”
After a year toiling with the Leduc AA squad, Verhoeff initially expected he might forego the AAA route altogether in favour of the Junior B ranks in neighbouring British Columbia. Fortunately for Stamler and the rest of the Oil Kings that decision didn’t stick.
“I would have to say that the biggest strengths we have this year are our goaltending, our defence and our team speed,” Stamler explained. “Both Kevin and (Brett) Zarowny have been fantastic for us this year and I think they’re going to be a big part of our success this year.”
For his part Zarowny had turned in comparable performances to Verhoeff in his first two starts of the year, turning away 46 shots in two wins with a save percentage of 92 and a goals against average of 2.00. Of course those numbers lost a bit of their shine when the South Side Athletic Club Boston Pizza Athletics slid six past Zarowny in a 6-5 comeback win on Oct. 15.
Still, Stamler is pleased with the effort both his netminders have put forth so far and he’s sure they have the talent to help his squad get back to, and hopefully past, the AMHL championship this season.
“To be honest, that loss was as much my fault as it was the players’ and our goalie actually played great even with the score,” said Stamler. “We were going to work on our neutral zone play on Friday in practice and I ran out of time and that’s what killed us. The boys weren’t thinking the game well enough to adjust when I told them to and that cost us. We were disorganized and they made us pay.”
Still, with seven AMHL veterans on the roster this year and a pair of goaltenders content to split time and amicably attempt to out-do one another, the Oil Kings look every bit as good as the team that finished runner-up in 2010/11. And when you consider two of their top players – sniper Doug Morris and bruising defenceman Brennan Hunker - have yet to suit up because of injury, it could be a very good year to bet on Oil.
“We’re going at a good clip to start off, that’s for sure, but there are definitely things to work on,” said Stamler. “If we can get healthy and the rest of our guys can keep working and doing what they’ve been doing, we’re going to be fine.”
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