As happy as he was to visit with family and see his dogs at home in Calgary, injured Lloydminster Bobcats goaltender Ty Matonovich remained focused on returning to action, with playoffs just around the corner.
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Matonovich sported some of the best goaltending statistics in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) when he suffered a knee injury that forced him out of a Feb. 22 game in Lloydminster.
Navigating on crutches, he watched the next game in Lloyd on Feb. 25, as the Bobcats came from behind to defeat the Devon Xtreme 6-5 in overtime. He said it took extra time just to pull on his suit before attending that Hub matchup.
Matonovich went home a day later as the Bobcats departed on a circuitous road trip that included three games in as many days. It was a chance for him to rest and recuperate and to gain a definitive diagnosis from Calgary doctors.
“It’s looking pretty good so far,” Matonovich said last Friday from Calgary. “I had an appointment today. I’m getting some good news.
“It’s a strained MCL (medial collateral ligament). My ACL and LCL kind of flipped, when it popped out, so we had to get those back in (place).”
He was scheduled for further imaging evaluation Monday and planned to return to Lloydminster that night.
Matonovich couldn’t walk, let alone skate, after his knee injury in the second period of the Bobcats’ 5-4 overtime loss to the Canmore Eagles.
“It was just kind of an awkward little fall,” he said. “Just the way that (the opponent) came in and the way that I fell, because I wasn’t looking at him. I didn’t really see him. So, it was one of those weird ones, I’d say.”
There wasn’t a penalty called on the play, though Matonovich believed there should have been.
“I thought, for sure, that it was at least a penalty,” he said. “Especially after I talked to the refs in the first period (when) there were guys in the crease, so I just said, ‘Hey ref, can you watch it?’
“He said, ‘Yeah, for sure, goalie safety is always No. 1.’ Then, that happened in the second and they never called it.”
After a brief stoppage, Matonovich tried to play through the pain, but he couldn’t move properly on the next Canmore goal and was forced to leave the net in favour of newcomer Trent Peterson, who made a hasty AJHL debut.
“It was just an instant, super sharp pain,” he said. “Then, I was thinking, ‘I could probably play through it. Maybe it’ll go away.’ And it just never went away. That last goal there was kind of the breaking point of (realizing), ‘OK, it’s probably a bit worse than I thought.’ I was pretty much stuck (when I tried to move across the crease).”
Matonovich and Jaiden Sharma had been rotating between the Lloydminster pipes before Sharma suddenly returned to the BCHL two weeks into February, so Matonovich’s role with the Bobcats immediately became that much more significant for the former SJHL goaltender.
He hopes the most rewarding part of his final junior hockey season is still to come.
The Bobcats clinched a playoff berth last weekend. They have four games remaining in the regular season, including two home dates this weekend with the Calgary Canucks on Friday and the Olds Grizzlys on Saturday.
“It’s just bad timing,” Matonovich said about his injury. “But, hopefully, I can come back quick and help the team out and just pick up where I left off.”
‘IT’S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD’
Since joining the Bobcats in mid-November, he has fashioned an 11-7-3 record, with a 2.51 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage.
“We’ve still got a few (regular-season) games left, so it would be nice if I could get in for a few of those, for sure, before playoffs start,” he said. “But, if not, it’s not the end of the world. I’ll be in for playoffs.
“I think I’m going to try to skate (this week). We’ll see how it goes. I’ve got to go get a knee brace today.”
Earlier in the day, he assessed the damage and tried to regain moderate movement, with the guidance of a physiotherapist.
“I haven’t been able to walk the past few days, so it’s more just about getting my body going, and trying to get some movement,” Matonovich said.
“There was a decent amount (of swelling) when it first happened, but it’s gone down quite a bit. There’s just a lot of scar tissue in there.”
For precautionary reasons, further imaging was scheduled for Monday, he reported.
“I think it should be fine.”
In the meantime, the Bobcats’ goaltending chores have been in the hands of Peterson, a 20-year-old Wisconsin native who had been in the USHL. He played every minute as Lloydminster gained three wins, an overtimes loss and seven of a possible eight points during a busy stretch.
The six-foot-four, 205-pound Peterson was backed up by another big boy in the six-foot-three, 215-pound Owen Prasek, a call-up from the U18 AAA Leduc Oil Kings.
With their roster short in numbers recently, the Bobcats have tried to regroup after the departures of Sharma and third-year forward Matthew Hikida to the BCHL last month.
“I think we’ve got a pretty good team on our hands here,” said Matonovich, noting that forwards Kael Screpnek and Jadon Iyogun and defencemen Jaxan Hopko and Dylan Deets have been especially impactful of late.
“Those four have really stepped up since our team went through a lot when Matty left and Sharms left. Screps is at 40 points now, which is crazy. He’s pretty impressive with what he’s been able to do.”
The only thing that has stopped Screpnek lately is an injury, which kept him out of the lineup last weekend as the Bobcats played three games in as many days.
Of course, the injured Calgarians — Matonovich and Screpnek — would like nothing more than to return to action for this Friday’s home game against their native Canucks.
Sharma, one of the six goalies who have played games with the Bobcats this season, went back to the BCHL after just a couple of months in Lloydminster. Matonovich was also approached to leave town for the independent BCHL, but he told his suitors he wasn’t interested.
“For me, personally, I just didn’t see a point in it,” he said. “I’ve already started something in Lloyd, so I might as well finish it. There were a couple of calls that were made, but I just told (those B.C. teams) I wasn’t interested in leaving, so it kind of died down.”
Now, he’s counting on a comeback and a playoff run with the Bobcats.
Before then, Matonovich welcomed a few days at home in Calgary to spend with his parents, his older brother — a university student — and their two dogs. At the same time, his King Corso Boxer was particularly happy to see Matonovich.
“Oh yeah, he was super pumped.”
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