ALBUQUERQUE – Hello Ice Wolves fans and welcome to the latest edition of the Ice Wolves Den. This week we feature one of the newest NAHL Ice Wolves Goaltenders Gavin Schahn.
Gavin is one of many Minnesota natives to join the Ice Wolves and looked up to several top Goaltenders, “Growing up watching the Minnesota Wild, all the goalies that came through there, I also looked up to Carey Price, Jonathan Quick, I looked up to those guys because they always made a lot of difficult saves.” Schahn said, “My parents were always supportive of me growing up, being a Goaltender isn’t cheap, but they were always there getting me new equipment and getting me to practice. 5am, 6am, they were always there waiting for me at the rink, even my Grandparents, they all supported me.”
Ice Wolves Head Coach Kevin Hartzell appreciates that Schahn isn’t selfish. “One of the things I love about Gavin, he’s the new guy, Jackson Fuller is the third year guy. Gavin has been playing as much as Fuller, a few weekends ago Fuller won a game for us. We weren’t our best, but Fuller won it in a shootout. Last week at home when I announced Fuller would go first, Gavin was the biggest cheerleader. You could see he was happy for his teammate and I love that about him.” Hartzell said, “He’s in development, but he’s 6’4″ and he makes saves that are NHL caliber. I think he has a bright future and he’s working with a great attitude. He’s still got a lot to learn about playing the puck, not just stopping it. He understands and he’s in a great spot.”
Assistant Coach Vinny Bohn has been impressed with Schahn’s work ethic, “It’s hard in the NAHL to come to any camp as an unknown, be it pre draft camp or main camp and make the team, it’s even harder to not only make the team, but to contribute. He had two 20 year olds in front of him, but he stayed after every practice and put in the extra work. He had the right attitude and did all the right things.”Bohn said, “For him to get rewarded with the results is not by accident. He’s a guy that during our hardest times at the beginning of the year, he gave us timely goaltending and gave our team confidence when they needed it. It’s been awesome to see his development.”
Schahn credits his confidence, coaching and the fans, “After that first game against Elmira I knew I could do this, 4 games later I’m 4-1 so, it’s going pretty well. I just have to clean up a few things. Me and Jack go back to high school, he was my Goalie partner my Sophomore year, so we have a connection. The coaches are great, always encouraging me to stay after practice, Coach McKenzie is always there, working on stuff like wall rims and wall stuff. Vinny is always trying to give me a hard time, but you need that as a Goaltender. Hartzell is always watching me, trying to get me to improve every day. I’ve never been away from home, the fans are special. I always had big crowds, but never the horns and stuff. The scenic views here are amazing, warming during the sunset with the mountains, it doesn’t get better than that, the food is just great. I’ve grown to like green chile, I really like Mexican food, I think I handle spice pretty well, I love it.”
The NAHL Ice Wolves split a pair with their rival Oklahoma Warriors this past weekend, falling 5-4 in a shootout Friday and flipping it Saturday with a 5-4 overtime thriller. They head to Greeley this weekend to take on the Grit before returning home to take on the same Grit on December 13, 14 and 15 with the 15th being their second annual Teddy Bear Toss
The NA3HL Ice Wolves dropped 2 of 3 to the El Paso Rhinos, falling 3-2 on Friday winning 9-4 Saturday before losing 4-3 on Sunday. They return home this weekend to take on the Texas Roadrunners. The Ice Wolves will be wearing special jerseys and raising money for Taos Youth Hockey, whose arena recently burned down, as well as their second annual Teddy Bear Toss on Saturday.
Photos courtesy of the New Mexico Ice Wolves.
