Culina cool in the crease
Overage goalie Mario Culina has proven to be a bargain for the Kitchener Rangers in the three games since being acquired from the Sudbury Wolves at the Ontario Hockey League trade deadline.
Culina has a perfect 3-0-0 record to go with a .949 save percentage and 1.33 goals against average for Kitchener since Rangers general manager Mike McKenzie pried him from Sudbury for an eighth round draft pick.
“He’s been great for us,” the hawk-eyed McKenzie relayed to Hockey News North.
With Sudbury in last place in the Eastern Conference and in to a full rebuild mode, Wolves general manager Rob Papineau made six trades prior to and at the deadline in moving out veteran players — including Culina — for a combination of draft picks and younger skaters.
A Sault Ste. Marie native, the 6-foot-2, 185-pound Culina had joined Sudbury in mid November off OHL waivers from the Windsor Spitfires. He had started the 2017-2018 season with the Ryerson Rams of Ontario University Athletics after spending the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 campaigns as a backup to Michael DiPietro with the reigning Memorial Cup champions from Windsor.
Kitchener coach Jay McKee likes what he has seen of Culina thus far.
“We’re excited to have him,” the Rangers bench boss told TheRecord.com. “He has pretty explosive speed in net. He’s a veteran presence.”
Culina, who trains during the off season with Sault Ste. Marie-based goalie instructor Jamie Disano of Elite Post to Post, is happy to be with the Rangers and playing on a Western Conference contender after the roller-coaster ride that sent him from Windsor to Ryerson to Sudbury to Kitchener.
“It has been a lot of ups and downs,” Culina told TheRecord.com. “But I’ve been trying to have fun with it. I never gave up hope (of playing his overage season in the OHL).”
As for the aforementioned Disano, the Sault Ste. Marie goal-tending guru is not surprised at Culina’s performance thus far.
“His work ethic is through the roof,” Disano relayed to Hockey News North. “He only wants to get better and better. He is very quick and very athletic. He is cool under pressure. He thrives under pressure.”
To be sure, Culina brought a winning background to Kitchener, which has a decent shot at making a run for the Western Conference crown along with clear-cut, OHL championship favourite Soo Greyhounds and the Sarnia Sting.
Besides being a part of the 2017 Memorial Cup championship team with Windsor, Culina back-stopped the Soo Thunderbirds to Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League and Dudley Hewitt Cup, Central Canada titles before signing with the Spitfires as an OHL free agent in 2015.
PHOTO: Mario Culina, in action with the Kitchener Rangers, in a 6-0 win over the Niagara Ice Dogs on Wednesday. (Photo by Postmedia.)