Post by stars123 on Apr 26, 2008 21:30:17 GMT -6
I found this article about tough guy Mitch Woods.
It’s easy to look at Mitch Woods, see the International Hockey League-leading 297 penalty minutes and 24 fights – second most in the league, and think, “Yup, just another goon.”
But there’s more to him. You just have to dig deeper.
You have to talk to his father in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, a town of about 35,000 that Mitch hadn’t left for any great length of time until this season. Tim Woods will tell you stories, about how his son will do anything for teammates, anything to win, about how he’s a stand-up guy.
Like that first year in juniors, when the coach needed a fight and no one would go, not even the team’s enforcer. Mitch, down at the end of the bench, all 5-foot-8 of him, hopped onto the ice and took care of business.
Or the time Mitch took a two-handed slash on his hand, broke a bunch of bones that were later reconstructed with pins, but he wouldn’t leave the game even though he could barely hold his stick.
And the time Mitch took a hit, separated his shoulder and the team doctor told him his season was over. Mitch drove 45 minutes to a horse doctor had three ribs put back into place and played that night.
“That’s how desperate he is to play hockey,” said Tim, a corrections officer.
That’s why they love him in Prince Albert. They pester Tim for details about his son. Others watch games on the Internet, where they can barely make out the 10,000-plus fans at Memorial Coliseum or comprehend how beloved Woods, a rookie, is in Fort Wayne.
“He brings so much energy to the rink. And I’m just glad he’s on my team,” said Fort Wayne captain Guy Dupuis, whose team opens a first-round playoff series against the Muskegon Fury tonight.
Woods, a 21-year-old right wing, makes big hits and skates hard every shift. He’s one of the few players on the team who will camp out in front of the net and take the punishment involved. He got 15 goals and 36 points in 73 regular-season games.
And, of course, he fights.
He fights a lot for a player who started out as a defenseman and won a most sportsmanlike player award at age 12. But then everyone started getting bigger than him, playing the game dirtier, and Woods found himself responding in kind.
“After a few discussions with his coach, and sometimes with me, he realized he had to suck it up,” Tim said. “He was getting slashed and hooked a lot and kept winding up in the penalty box. He developed a bad temper. (We explained) he had to take a number and get them later.”
When Mitch was 15, he wasn’t having fun anymore and quit hockey for a year.
“In the winter, I didn’t really miss it, but then the summertime came along, and I realized I’d missed playing that year,” Mitch said. “It definitely made me hungrier. Things really (blossomed) from there.”
By the time he reached his Tier-II junior team, Battlefords, he had blossomed. Between 2004 and 2007, he tallied 55 goals, 121 points and 663 penalty minutes in 149 games, parlaying that success to tryouts in the American Hockey League and ECHL before coming to Fort Wayne last fall.
“My junior team was the closest team in the league to my house. It was only two hours away, so if me or my buddies ever wanted to come home, it was just a quick hop in the truck,” Mitch said. “I joke about it, this is the first time me and my best friend have been apart for more than two weeks since we were 15 years old.
“But it’s been awesome being (in Fort Wayne). Even if I do something wrong, it seems like the fans support me. Even if I take a dumb penalty, they’re still cheering for me.”
Mitch frowns when he thinks about some of those penalties. After Sunday’s 3-2 overtime loss to Flint, he talked about letting people down with a high-sticking double minor and a misconduct, even if his fight with John DiPace in the second period was one of the few highlights of the game.
“I don’t know what other cities are like,” Mitch said. “But from what everyone tells me, this is one of the best, if not the best, minor pro cities to play in. It feels like it.”
And it feels like the Komets’ fans love Mitch, not just as a goon, but as a player.
Hmm some things never change. He was loved in the SJHL and loved in the IHL. A horse Doctor, WOW..
www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080418/SPORTS0601/804180322
It’s easy to look at Mitch Woods, see the International Hockey League-leading 297 penalty minutes and 24 fights – second most in the league, and think, “Yup, just another goon.”
But there’s more to him. You just have to dig deeper.
You have to talk to his father in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, a town of about 35,000 that Mitch hadn’t left for any great length of time until this season. Tim Woods will tell you stories, about how his son will do anything for teammates, anything to win, about how he’s a stand-up guy.
Like that first year in juniors, when the coach needed a fight and no one would go, not even the team’s enforcer. Mitch, down at the end of the bench, all 5-foot-8 of him, hopped onto the ice and took care of business.
Or the time Mitch took a two-handed slash on his hand, broke a bunch of bones that were later reconstructed with pins, but he wouldn’t leave the game even though he could barely hold his stick.
And the time Mitch took a hit, separated his shoulder and the team doctor told him his season was over. Mitch drove 45 minutes to a horse doctor had three ribs put back into place and played that night.
“That’s how desperate he is to play hockey,” said Tim, a corrections officer.
That’s why they love him in Prince Albert. They pester Tim for details about his son. Others watch games on the Internet, where they can barely make out the 10,000-plus fans at Memorial Coliseum or comprehend how beloved Woods, a rookie, is in Fort Wayne.
“He brings so much energy to the rink. And I’m just glad he’s on my team,” said Fort Wayne captain Guy Dupuis, whose team opens a first-round playoff series against the Muskegon Fury tonight.
Woods, a 21-year-old right wing, makes big hits and skates hard every shift. He’s one of the few players on the team who will camp out in front of the net and take the punishment involved. He got 15 goals and 36 points in 73 regular-season games.
And, of course, he fights.
He fights a lot for a player who started out as a defenseman and won a most sportsmanlike player award at age 12. But then everyone started getting bigger than him, playing the game dirtier, and Woods found himself responding in kind.
“After a few discussions with his coach, and sometimes with me, he realized he had to suck it up,” Tim said. “He was getting slashed and hooked a lot and kept winding up in the penalty box. He developed a bad temper. (We explained) he had to take a number and get them later.”
When Mitch was 15, he wasn’t having fun anymore and quit hockey for a year.
“In the winter, I didn’t really miss it, but then the summertime came along, and I realized I’d missed playing that year,” Mitch said. “It definitely made me hungrier. Things really (blossomed) from there.”
By the time he reached his Tier-II junior team, Battlefords, he had blossomed. Between 2004 and 2007, he tallied 55 goals, 121 points and 663 penalty minutes in 149 games, parlaying that success to tryouts in the American Hockey League and ECHL before coming to Fort Wayne last fall.
“My junior team was the closest team in the league to my house. It was only two hours away, so if me or my buddies ever wanted to come home, it was just a quick hop in the truck,” Mitch said. “I joke about it, this is the first time me and my best friend have been apart for more than two weeks since we were 15 years old.
“But it’s been awesome being (in Fort Wayne). Even if I do something wrong, it seems like the fans support me. Even if I take a dumb penalty, they’re still cheering for me.”
Mitch frowns when he thinks about some of those penalties. After Sunday’s 3-2 overtime loss to Flint, he talked about letting people down with a high-sticking double minor and a misconduct, even if his fight with John DiPace in the second period was one of the few highlights of the game.
“I don’t know what other cities are like,” Mitch said. “But from what everyone tells me, this is one of the best, if not the best, minor pro cities to play in. It feels like it.”
And it feels like the Komets’ fans love Mitch, not just as a goon, but as a player.
Hmm some things never change. He was loved in the SJHL and loved in the IHL. A horse Doctor, WOW..
www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080418/SPORTS0601/804180322
