RoughRiders’ goalie Blacker appears to have head on straight

CEDAR RAPIDS – Ben Blacker could be the poster boy for the United States Hockey League when it comes to recruiting head to head against Major Junior leagues in Canada.

The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders goaltender is from Oakville, Ontario, and was drafted by the Otttawa 67's of the Ontario Hockey League. There always is a lot of pressure for Canadian kids to remain home.

But Blacker has chosen the United States junior/college route for his promising career and has no apologies for it.

'I know a lot of goaltenders who have gone the Major Junior route,” said Blacker, whose Riders host Omaha at approximately 7:15 Saturday night. 'After talking to them, I heard the very same response: ‘If I could do it all over again, I'd go NCAA.' When you are 15 or 16 and get drafted, it's a great honor. But as a goaltender, you really want to think about your development. The OHL is always kind of that dangling object out in front of you. You want to grab it, but you have to think of the future.”

Such a mature response for a kid who is just 17.

Major Junior players are paid nominally, so the very second they play a game are ineligible permanently for college hockey in the U.S. Junior players in this country, meanwhile, are not paid, though, in the USHL receive free housing and equipment.

There are so many kids in Canada whose careers don't pan out, they age out of Major Junior hockey and find themselves having to figure out what to do with their lives at 20 or 21 years old. That was not lost on Blacker.

'You're not thinking two years down the road, you are thinking six or seven,” he said. 'What if hockey doesn't work out? And, as well, goaltenders take a lot more time to develop. So I just thought this was the most appropriate route for me. If you can earn a college degree and also do something you love, that's even better.”

Blacker committed at 15 to Western Michigan University. He was on the affiliate roster of younger players for the Indiana Ice when they decided to go dormant last spring.

The RoughRiders picked him in the first round, 12th overall, in a league dispersal draft. That seems to be quite a fortuitous deal for them, as Blacker has won his first three USHL starts, including a shutout last weekend of Muskegon.

'All I've had to do is make the first save, then my teammates have cleared the rebound,” said Blacker, who has a 1.67 Goals against average and .950 save percentage in the very early going. 'They've done their jobs, so that's my mine a lot easier.”

Blacker is a small netminder at 5-foot-8, but is sound positionally and known for a quick glove. By his quotes, you can tell how smart he is.

He has had to grow up on the ice quickly. The original plan for the RoughRiders was to have him be an understudy for returning starter Danny Tirone, but Tirone was asked last month to enroll at the University of New Hampshire for its second semester and compete for its starting job after the indefinite suspension of its anticipiated number one guy.

'It has definitely been a big change. Danny was a great mentor,” Blacker said. 'When he left, it kind of came as a surprise … Having the teammates there for support has helped so much.

'Coach (Mark Carlson) has just told me basic stuff. Track the puck the whole way, make sure you are staying square and angled to the puck. The one thing he always mentions, which I admire, is just to have fun. That's why you play hockey. It's a fun game. If you can leave the ice after a win or a loss and say ‘You know what, I played great and I had fun out there,' that's all that matters.”

l Comments: (319) 398-8259; jeff.johnson@thegazette.com