Rookie goalie on the Express
Looking good between the pipes, kid.
Patrick Boivin has more than stepped up as the starting goalie for the rebuilt Espanola Express in the early going of the 2021-2022 Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League season.
Hailing from down the highway in Blind River Beavers country, the rookie Boivin has emerged as a workhorse for Espanola by appearing in five of the first six games of the Express season.
On a young Espanola team that has a record of 2-4-0, Boivin has a 2-3-0 mark along with a 3.00 goals against average and .925 save percentage while facing 200 shots — an average of 40 per game — in 300 minutes of work.
“He’s come up big for us to start the season,” Express general manager and coach Jason Rapcewicz said of Boivin, who has a 2003 birth date. “He is an athletic kid and he is a really good kid, too.”
Prior to signing with Espanola of the NOJHL, Boivin was a star goalie over two seasons in the Great North Under Hockey League, stopping pucks for both the Sudbury Minor Wolves and Kapuskasing Flyers.
The kid’s gonna be ok.