Aidan Kirkpatrick had never signed an autograph before Sunday night, but there he was, on the Prospera Centre ice after the Chilliwack Chiefs regular season finale, signing a jersey for a little boy.
“It’s quite an experience,” the teenager said with an ear to ear grin as more youngsters skated up. “This whole night has been breathtaking.
“I don’t know how else to describe it.”
A surreal moment to cap a surreal day for the Chilliwack Minor Hockey player.
Kirkpatrick’s unexpected adventure started with a Sunday morning call from his midget A2 coach, Scott Hanna, asking if he’d like to serve as the Chiefs backup goalie versus Prince George.
With regular Chiefs starter Mark Sinclair injured and regular backup Mathieu Caron unavailable, the team needed someone to sit on the bench and hopefully not play.
But when substitute starter Josh Bolding struggled, letting in three goals on 14 shots, Chiefs coach Jason Tatarnic made the boldest of moves.
He sent Kirkpatrick in with Chilliwack down 3-0.
“Honestly, when he looked at me (on the bench) and told me to go in I was like, ‘Me?’” Kirkpatrick laughed. “I thought maybe he was talking to one of the other guys.”
“As I stepped onto the ice, all I had going through my head was, ‘Don’t mess this up. Play well. Play with heart.”
With a completely unproven netminder needing protection, the Chiefs tightened up defensively. The Spruce Kings only managed just nine shots in the last 37:06, and Kirkpatrick was there to stop them all.
They weren’t all easy, either.
“The first shot was a guy trying to put it top corner on me and I ended up getting my shoulder on it and catching it with my glove,” Kirkpatrick recalled. “It was all good after that.”
No. 35 held the fort, as Chilliwack stormed back for a 4-3 victory.
If that’s his one and only junior A experience, they can never take that W away from him.
“I got my first game, my first win and my first shutout,” he said, smiling. “Nothing’s better than that.”