On Wednesday morning, we had a chance to go on the bench with the Bobcats backup goalie, Atticus Kelly. He is from Shattuck St Mary’s High School in the Twin Cities, and this is Kelly’s first year in junior hockey. When the Head Coach and General Manager calls, you have a choice. You can either turn him down, or you can be a great teammate to the starting goalie, Johnny Roberts. The Sheriff’s Patrol posed the question, how do the two goalies work together? According to Kelly, Roberts and he have no problem working together. When it comes to how does a goalie stay loose on the bench, Kelly stated you have to be mentally ready to go in if something happens to the starting goalie, or if he is having a bad night. When we asked how Roberts and Kelly worked together, he said they try and help one another be better goalies by watching the play on the ice. If Roberts has a question about a save or a goal, he goes to Kelly for advice. Kelly prefers to work directly with Head Coach Sedevie. On most teams, the goalie coach is a separate position, but since Layne Sedevie is a former netminder himself, he knows what his two charges in the net are going through. It is very important for Sedevie’s goaltenders to stay in shape, because of the ups and downs that a goalie goes through. When a goalie has a lot of vulcanized rubber to face, conditioning plays a big role in how many saves he can make. The only time a goalie can take a break is when the offense is carrying the play to the other team’s zone. But other times, the goalie has to look alive and use his cat-like reflexes to make a save and control rebounds, so the other team has no opportunity to score a goal. The young man with number 30 on his back for your Bismarck Bobcats would like to attend a D1 college and earn a scholarship to play college hockey. The Sheriff’s Patrol would like to wish Atticus Kelly good luck as he continues to go on the prowl after his college hockey dream.
