SYLVANIA, Ohio — We are working down the home stretch for the high school hockey season and the Northview Wildcats are starting to play much better hockey as of late.
A big reason why? Their goaltender Austin Nowak.
This season didn’t start the way Northview would have liked. In the first two months of the season, they’d lost way more than they’re accustomed to. But once the calendar flipped to 2022, their mindset flipped as well.
It started with a huge upset win against St. Ignatius who was number one in Ohio. In that game, goaltender Austin Nowak stopped all 51 shots he faced.
It continued last weekend with a tournament championship win against University School. Again, Nowak stopped every shot he faced and has thrown the Wildcats on his back.
"Beating two teams like that, it's great because if we beat Ignatius, I think they're by far the number one team in the state," said Nowak. "We beat them, it just helps us know that we can do it. If we beat them I feel like we can take on anybody."
It is no secret that when you have a hot goaltender in hockey, it can change a game and even a season. Right now, there are not many hotter than Nowak.
"He comes as advertised. We knew when he came to the program last year he was coming with a great background playing up in Triple-A the last five, six years before joining us," said head coach Steve Elliott. "I actually coached him in his first couple of years with his dad when our boys were younger. He's just been amazing all year. He's been our rock lately, but quite frankly he's been our MVP all season."
"I do my job, my defense does their job," said Nowak. "They're playing great in front of me. They're making my job really easy. They're keeping the shots to the outside. I owe them a big amount of credit."
Right now, Nowak has been the backbone of this team, and if they want to have a deep state playoff run, he will be a huge key.
"I know when I make a big save, the boys fuel off that," said Nowak. "We need stuff like that. We need big saves, we need big goals. It just fuels our team."
"He can win games for us plain and simple," said Elliott. "You don't think you have bad goaltending until you don't have it. When you don't have goaltending it can really change your season. So he's just been dynamite for us and gives us a chance to win every night."
Austin Nowak from Northview hockey is our Athlete of the Week.