Goalie Mack Shields knew when he decided to take the Prince George Cougars up on their invitation to training camp he'd have to relive the goal Cal Babych, his Calgary Hitmen teammate, scored on him last season to win a game at CN Centre.
Babych's slow-moving dump-in from just across the centre line slid right under the glove of Shields and that stood up as the 3-2 winner.
"That was a pretty flukey goal, one of those memories you want to push away and it's kind of funny now," said Shields. "Those things you just have to take that as experience but it's kind of funny being back in the rink now after that."
Nearly five months later, Shields is in Prince George trying to win a position in net for the Cougars. The 20-year-old Shields knows he's in tough trying to dislodge 19-year-old incumbent Ty Edmonds and 17-year-old Tavin Grant. Patrick Gora, 19, is also back, having joined the Cougars in January.
"I just need to come and work hard and fight for a spot and if I can push those guys and try to get a spot somewhere, that's the end goal," said Shields. "One thing I've learned in the WHL is you can't take anything for granted. The new season is the new season and you've got to earn your spot every year."
Shields played three years with the Hitmen and is coming off his best WHL season. He had a 2.67 goals-against average and .900 save percentage in 49 regular season games. He also handled most of the workload in the playoffs, compiling a 6-3 record in 12 playoff appearances to lead the Hitmen to series wins over Kootenay and Medicine Hat into the Eastern Conference final. Calgary was then eliminated by Brandon in a five-game series.
"It was a great season for me, it was the first year I was able to step out of Chris Driedger's shadow, because he was the starter there for long time," said Shields
"I played some really big playoff games against some good teams and I think that's really going to help me with my career moving forward. Being a 20-year-old you have to show you can kind of dominate the league and I'm hoping I can bring that to this team.
"I experienced pretty good success and I also had a good team in front of me and it kind of reminds me of the team that's going to be here in Prince George this year. We had a lot of goalscorers and young guys like Jansen Harkins and Chase Witala on this team."
Shields knows, as a 20-year-old, it will be difficult to dislodge Edmonds, who played in 60 of 72 regular season games in 2014-15, compiling a 3.64 goals-against average and .892 save percentage, and played all five playoff games.
Cats general manager Todd Harkins brought Shields to push Edmonds. The Hitmen elected to keep 20-year-old Brendan Burke and soon after Shields cleared waivers he was on his way to Prince George. Shields is one of four overagers in camp. The others are forwards Witala and Aaron Macklin, and defenceman Joseph Carvalho.
"Guys don't lose their job over the summer -- we still have Ty and Patrick and Tavin and they have to play well in training camp and we'll make a decision at the end of it," said Harkins. "We just want them to mature as players and prove they can continue to get better in training camp. I think every guy has a chance to play and Mack has to prove throughout the next three or four weeks he's capable of being one of our goalies.
"It's not uncommon in our league (to have three goalies) because if you drop a goalie it's very hard to get a midget goalie or junior A goalie, especially with the location of our town, and it's very difficult bringing goalies in. That's something we'll assess as well. Mack will be seen by a lot of teams and there are a lot of teams that need goaltending at this point."
