Tiny Tirone a big man in net

CEDAR RAPIDS - You don't have to be big to play big.

Oh, sure, it would help if Danny Tirone of the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders had a physical stature a little larger than 5-foot-10 and 168 pounds. That's small for a goaltender.

But he's made what he was given work fine.

"He's tough," said RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson, whose team beat Fargo, 3-2, in a shootout Friday night at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena. "He's tough and a competitor, and that's why he's successful."

Tirone, 19, came to the United States Hockey League this season after a successful prep school career at Loomis Chaffee School in Connecticut, where he was named New England Prep School Player of the Year last season by the U.S. Hockey Report. He is committed to the University of New Hampshire.

"I just try to be aggressive and challenge the shooter, since I'm not big. I try and look big," Tirone said. "As long as they don't see the net, it doesn't really matter how tall I am. It's about having proper angles and coming out (of the net). That makes them feel like they're shooting on a bigger goalie."

Tirone sat the first three games of the RoughRiders' season, with returnee Chris Birdsall getting the net time. But Birdsall missed a weekend with sickness and the last two weeks playing for a United States team that won the gold medal at the World Junior 'A' Challenge international tournament in Nova Scotia.

That gave Tirone a full opportunity, and he made the most of it. He is 6-2 in eight games, with a 2.46 goals against average and .924 save percentage.

Last Tuesday, he was the main reason his travel-weary and short-handed team was able to beat Dubuque in a shootout in the conclusion of a suspended game from a month ago.

"Yeah, it was tough at first," Tirone said. "I think everyone wants to play. We're all competitors and want to play, so it was tough to sit and watch. But at the same time, we were winning, and that makes it a lot easier to watch."

He feels his adjustment to a higher level of hockey has been completed.

"Probably the travel was the most difficult thing to get used to," he said. "We have traveled a lot. I was in prep school last year, and here, everyone is bigger, everyone shoots faster and are further along in their development. It's been a great challenge, and I've enjoyed it."

The RoughRiders have had to enjoy the way Tirone has played and that they appear to have one of the best goalie duos in the USHL. Carlson felt comfortable enough with Tirone and Birdsall to recently trade the rights to goalie Collin Olson to the Sioux City Musketeers.

Olson, a draft pick of the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes, left Ohio State and will play in the USHL while seeking to transfer to another school.

It was Birdsall who got the victory Friday night, making 31 stops during the game and seven of eight in the elongated shootout. Cedar Rapids (10-3-1, 21 points) rallied from a 2-0 hole, tying things with goals 58 seconds apart early in the third period from Corey Petrash and Ivan Provorov.

Strangely, it was defensemen Mark Auk and Charlie Curti who were successful in the shootout. Auk was clutch as the sixth shooter, countering Fargo's lone make.

Curti then won it as the eighth shooter. The RoughRiders host Dubuque on Saturday night at approximately 7:20.

Here is the official gamesheet: