Bd Terrace Review —

Wednesday, August }, 1990

WADE FLAHERTY: No way he can top what he did this year, in the minors anyway.

Flaherty a ’wall of
defense’ for Monarchs

Reprinted from the Greensboro
News & Record, April 7, 1990.
Copy written by Ed Hardin.

WINSTON-SALEM — About
30 seconds into Friday night’s
East Coast Hockey League
championship game, the puck
slid harmlessly into the Mon-
archs’ goal.

Monarchs’
said. °° :

‘He was just unbelievable,”’
Fraser said. ‘‘He did things that
I’ve not seen a goalie do in a
long time. He carried the team
through the playoffs, like all
great goalies do.”’

Greensboro’s climb to the
ECHL title coincided with

previous victims

Play had been called seconds

earlier, so the goal did not
count, but the goal judge, realiz-
-ing the irony hit the red light
signifying a goal just the same.
A few hockey fans cheered.
Most jeered. Wade Flaherty, the
Greensboro goalie, didn’t even
turn around to get the puck.

Flaherty, the Monarchs’ rock
wall of defense, was stone-faced
under his mask. It was the same
look his opponents have seen
Since the playoffs took a funny
_-turn in the opening series against
“ Nirginia. He has left three teams:
: talking to themselves and three
- Opposing coaches singing praises
. for the Greensboro goalie.

- “Goaltending was the dif-
“ference i in the series,”’ Virginia
“coach Dave Allison said. “It was
the only difference.” _

:. “Flaherty,’’ was all Ron Han-
‘sis, the Erie coach, could say
when asked why his team was
eliminated in two games against
Greensboro. ‘‘Flaherty was
unreal. He was on his head the
entire two games.”* _

- After Friday night's win over,
Winston- Salem, the game that
clinched the ECHL champion-
ship for the Monarchs,:

- Thunderbirds coach Jay Fraser
said much the.same thing -the. .

Flaherty being put into the
lineup in Game 3 of the opening
series against Virginia, He found
himself starting against the
Lancers when the Monarchs’
No. 1 goalie, Nick Vitucci, was
suspended in Game 2 following
a fight that ended in four player
suspensions and fines totalling
$500 against players and
coaches. In Game 3, with the
series tied a game apiece, Flaher-

ty assumed command, Nine.

games and eight wins later,
Flaherty never flinched. He end-

, ed the playoffs with an amazing

-950 goals allowed average and
an &-] record. He was named
Most Valuable Player of the
series after Friday’s win in
Winston-Salem.

“Getting the MVP is a great
feeling,’’ Flaherty said. ‘‘It
means even more because Nick
got it last year. I can’t express
how great it feels, but when that
empty net goal went in, it was

like I couldn’t see, I was just so

excited.”’
Flaherty’s season has been an
up-and-down one, mirroring the

‘Monarchs’ own stumble through

the regular season. Just after
camp broke back in the fall,
Greensboro decided to go with
former International. Hockey

League goalie Jocelyn Perreault.

atev

happened
to Wade
Flaherty?

Following an initial pro
hockey season in the lower
minor jeagues, Terrace fans of
goalie Wade Flaherty wondered
what’s in the future for the
talented netminder.

Well, we have a pretty good
idea, and from our information
Wade could be guarding the
twine for the expansion San Jose
team by the 1991-92 season.

Right now the San Jose fran-
chise is busy sorting through
more than 7,000 entries for a
‘name-the-team’ contest.

But, Wade has his foot in the
door, so to speak.

In July he attended a five-
player special training camp
back in the home territory of
Minnesota North Stars.

“We had some college and
high school kids there as well,
but the scouts wanted a good

Perrault apparently had’ tio interest™ ‘took at ‘us insthis development
in playing for an ECHL team and camp.” he told us.

was gone in a matter of days.
of days.

Enter Flaherty. Flaherty,
along with a couple of other
stand-ins, struggled through
Greensboro’s longest month of
the year, one that saw them drop
from first to seventh in the
ECHL standings. Soon after,
Monarchs coach Jeff Brubaker
began making changes on his
roster, changes that eventually
included the addition of Vitucci,
the proven goalie who guided
Winston-Salem to the ECHL
title a year ago. ;

When the playoffs began,
Vitucci was easily the No. 1
goalie for the Monarchs.

Vitucci carried the Monarchs
into the playoffs, and Flaherty
carried them out.

“Tt’s scary,”’ Brubaker said.
“Nick was the No. 1 goalie, and
when -he came out, Wade only
had one shot. One shot to make
it. Boy, did he make it. What he
did in the playoffs : defies
description. I couldn’t take him

out. Not that I wanted to, “

"And the irony is, Nick Vitucci
just signed a contract for next
year with-Fort Wayne of the In-
ternational League. Wade is
under contract to the North

Stars and you can bet J'm going

to be on the phone with them.

I’m going to let them know just
‘in- the

what he did’ for us
playoffs.’
Flaherty, who was called up

three times during the regular.
season to play in Kalamazoo.

(IHL), will likely not be back in

Greensboro next year, It’s pro-

bably a good thing. There’s no

way he can top what he did this -

year.

Wade, the only player in at-
tendance from Greensboro
Monarchs of the East Coast
Hockey League, came close to

accepting a contract from San
Jose as he would be part of the
North Star group moving to the
coast in the complicated deal.
made recently by the NHL.

**Some of the fine print in the
contract wasn’t up to my agent’s
liking, but it should be squared
away shortly for me to sign.’

Flaherty, a member of the
Terrace Minor Hockey team that
won three B.C. championships. a
few years back, expects to sign a
contract that would see him
playing in Phoenix, San Diego
or Kansas City (International
League) for the upcoming
season.

Then he’d get a crack at the
San Jose lineup.

Right now he'll be busy this
month at the Terrace Minor
Hockey school.

Elsewhere in this.edition is the
story from the Greensboro News
and Recording newspaper ‘on
Wade being named league’
playoff MVP this spring when
he led the Monarchs. to the
ECHL title.

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