Knoxville Ice Bears

Ice Bears glad goalie’s back

date: 01/02/2009

The plan wasn't for goalie Kirk Irving to return to the Knoxville Ice Bears this season.

Irving led the Ice Bears to the Southern Professional Hockey League championship as a 21-year-old rookie last season. The Swan Hills, Alberta, native, who was named President's Cup MVP, planned on playing in the Central Hockey League. But the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees changed coaches during the offseason and Irving was left out in the cold.

"The new coach decided to bring in recruits of his own," Irving said. "That put me on the outside looking in."

Irving hired an agent but it was too late to find work in a higher league.

"He looked around and everybody had their commitments made," Irving said as the Ice Bears (16-8-3) prepared for tonight's 7:30 game with the Columbus Cottonmouths (11-11-3) at Civic Coliseum. "It was pretty hard to find a spot at that point."

As a result, the Ice Bears have arguably the best goalie tandem in the league.

Irving has a 7-5-2 record. His 2.66 goals-against average is a shade better than teammate Andrew Gallant (2.72) and second to Huntsville's Tim Haun (2.47), who left Nov. 29 to play for the Fort Wayne Komets (International Hockey League) and hasn't returned.

Irving has bounced back after Huntsville torched him for five goals in 32:19 on 11 shots en route to a 7-3 win Dec. 21. Irving beat Fayetteville 3-2 Saturday and made 36 saves in a 5-2 win at Huntsville on Monday that kept the Ice Bears on the heels of the first-place Havoc.

"I don't think Irv gets shaken by a lot," Knoxville coach Scott Hillman said.

Successful goalies are like closers in baseball: They have to have a short memory.

"If you dwell on it, it's going to affect you the next game," he said after being pulled by Hillman for the first time this season.

"That (a bad outing) is part of the game. Bad games happen. You forget about those situations and move on."

Irving and Gallant have divided the minutes this season almost evenly and it was Gallant's turn to play at Huntsville. However, Hillman chose to start Irving in the big game.

"It shows my coach has a lot of confidence in my abilities," Irving said. "I wanted to go out and prove him right and also play well for the boys. Getting the win. That's all that matters in the end. I want Hilly to think he made the right decision."

The Havoc had won the previous three games against the Ice Bears to lead the season series 4-2-1.

"In a way we owed them ... we owed them a loss," Irving said. "They came into out barn and took one from us so we went in there with a chip on our shoulder and stole two points from them.

"Every game that we play against them is a four-point game. It was a game we had to win. Now if we win the games in hand, we'd be in first place."

Irving didn't see much difference in the games against Huntsville other than the bounces.

"Bounces weren't going against me (Monday)," he said. "When we played them here I had a couple of bad bounces, a puck off a defenseman's skate into the net, a bad bounce off the boards right to one of their players wide open net."

There is no jealousy between Knoxville's goalies and they seem to thrive on the competition.

"The relationship between Gallant and myself is a healthy one," Irving said. "I support him. We push each other. We're not selfish and can share the net. If he plays a couple of good games in a row, I understand it's only right that he plays the next game. We've got a good thing going and I have a lot of respect for him."

And vice versa.

Gallant has rubbed off on Irving in a good way. The second-year goalie is apt to play the puck more than he did last season.

Gallant has three assists and Irving picked up his first of the season against Huntsville.

"I didn't realize the assist until I looked at the game sheet," Irving said. "I don't even remember the play. I was just trying to stop the puck."

Nick Gates covers Ice Bears hockey. He can be reached at 865 342-6281. Visit http://www.knoxnews.com.

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