No fiction: this Hemingway can stop pucks

CEDAR RAPIDS - It's true. Matt Hemingway IS related to that famous writer guy who shares his last name.

Granted, Ernest Hemingway was the second cousin of his great-grandfather. But, hey, that counts.

“I think my family and about four other people are the only one's that know that,” Hemingway said with a smile. “I've read ‘Old Man and The Sea,' but that's it. I don't really like to write. Nothing like that.”

The truth is the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders rookie could write a good book on how to be a small goaltender. And when we say small, we mean small.

Hemingway is listed by the RoughRiders at 5-foot-5 and 141 pounds, though he claims to be 5-6. In the world of goaltending, that's beyond small.

“I consider myself a stand-up, hybrid kind of goalie,” said Hemingway, 18. “I rely on my quickness and not my size because I'm not that big. I've got to play different than everybody else. But it works out.”

Especially last week when Hemingway played his second game for Cedar Rapids and posted a 2-0 shutout of Chicago. The United States Hockey League named him its goalie of the week.

“I think any time you're that small, he's probably had people telling him his whole life he can't do it,” said RoughRiders assistant coach Jeff Dwyer. “So there's got to be an innate competitiveness there.”

One of the things you've got to have to be a good goalie is competitiveness. To heck with size and having technical ability, if you've got the will to keep the puck out of the net, that can carry you a long way.

Perhaps the best goalie the RoughRiders have had in their 11-year history is Bobby Goepfert, who also was smaller. Not Hemingway small, but definitely not big.

“You've got to read the shooter's stick blade,” said Hemingway, who played high school hockey in Alexandria, Minn., last year. “If they're shooting high, you've got to stand up sometimes. If they shoot low, then go down. Most goalies don't have to do that, so I'm a little less fortunate. But I've been holding my glove differently lately, and that has been helping out a lot with the high shots.”

Hemingway stopped all the shots in his 30-save shutout against Chicago. His other win came in a high-pressure shootout at Green Bay.

The kid is out to prove to everyone that size doesn't really matter.

“The shots are a lot faster here, the passes a lot quicker,” Hemingway said. “It took me awhile, but I feel like I'm starting to get it.”