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[hockeygod]

Mark Visentin earns his near-Hollywood ending

Roy MacGregor, Globe and Mail, Jan. 05, 2012

Turn it in as a Hollywood script and they’d laugh you out of the studios.

There’s this kid, see, a clean-cut, nicely spoken young Canadian hockey player – loves his dog Sheeba, loves his parents and grandparents – and the hockey gods decide that one year to the very day that he was accused of choking, with a medal once again on the line, this tall, skinny goalie takes a 3-0 lead into the third period of his country’s final game of the world junior hockey championship.

Can’t you just see it? A year ago in Buffalo he has this same lead in the gold-medal game against Russia and is standing, shell-shocked, in net as the greatest meltdown in tournament history takes place around him – five consecutive Russian goals that stab this insecure hockey country straight to its puck-black heart.

The only sure thing this year in Calgary is that there’s no border for his parents and grandparents to have to drive back across to get home, no Canadian border guard waiting to flick through their passports, dip down into the open window of the family car and say: “Oh crap, you’re a Visentin!” as if it were some sort of curse.

One year later, same day, same score with 20 minutes to go, and what happens? There’s your plot and it’s a winner.

In this case, it was: final score 4-0 Canada, with goaltender Mark Visentin granted a standing ovation as the player of the game. Mark Visentin with the shutout to give Canada the bronze medal over Finland. It may not have been for the gold medal and it wasn’t Russia, but it was personal redemption for a young man finally coming through the “toughest” year of his life. At only 19.

Visentin had played a small part in this year’s loss to the Russians, but the game was already 4-1 for the other side when he came in to replace Scott Wedgewood. The final 6-5 loss that ended Canada’s gold-medal dreams could no more be blamed on him than on Wedgewood. It had, rather, been a full-squad failure to come together as a team until it was too late.

Against Finland for the bronze, there was no chance for a team championship but still a chance for individual triumphs. The young goaltender who had been criticized so viciously a year ago made his statement that this time it would be different in the opening period, stopping a clear breakaway by Markus Granlund, one of the most feared players in this tournament.

But Visentin was not alone in seeking personal redemption. The Canadians went up 1-0 on a lovely tip by Tanner Pearson on a perfect pass from Mark Scheifele. Scheifele, the Winnipeg Jets’ top draft pick in 2011, and Pearson, a top prospect for the NHL entry draft in June, are best friends and linemates with the Barrie Colts of the Ontario Hockey League and had been considered pivotal scoring threats coming into the tournament. But it had not happened. The two had, until Thursday, been major disappointments.

But all that was forgotten early. In the second period, following a strong save by Visentin, the puck flew down into the Finnish end, where it wound up on Pearson’s stick behind the Finnish net. Pearson saw his linemate, fed him a perfect pass, and Scheifele ripped a wrist shot high past the blocker of Finnish goaltender Sami Aittokallio to make it 2-0. Quinton Howden finished off the Canadian scoring with two goals.

The sensational story, however, was Visentin. He saved a penalty shot awarded to Teemu Pulkkinen. Then he made The Save, a phenomenal catch in which the puck went off his shoulder, off the crossbar and was headed into the net when, somehow, Visentin swung around backward, catching it blind.

“Nice save,” Aittokallio said.

“Wow!” Canada’s Freddie Hamilton said.

“Flexible!” Pearson added, in awe.

“Amazing!” Canada’s Brendan Gallagher said.

The final word, however, must go to Mark Visentin, the kid who a year ago drove back in the dark to the family home in little Waterdown, Ont., who had bravely taken full responsibility for the third-period meltdown – though it was far from his alone – and had realized that one day everything would be all right again when he saw old Sheeba, the golden retriever he had played street hockey with since the dog was a puppy and he a child, coming across the floor in a flurry of wiggles and wags.

One year later, to the very day, there was instead a standing ovation, a medal proudly around his neck and, instead of everyone talking about him, everyone wanting to talk to him about that save.

“Pretty sweet,” he said.

End of story.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
Game Intelligence Training
"Great education depends on great teaching."