Goaltender Matt Michaud had a big smile across his face last Thursday at the Portland Ice Arena. His South Portland team had just evened their record with a win over Gray-New Gloucester/Poland, but the senior hadn’t spent a single moment of the action on the ice. Instead, teammate Amanda Teixeira received the nod from Bart Keinath, the Red Riots coach.
“I don’t mind it at all,” Michaud says. “I think it’s kind of exciting to watch hockey from the bench once in a while.”
Teixeira, a fellow senior who’s been playing hockey since eighth grade, was the back-up goalie for the boys last season.
“I started two games,” she says. “I got a fair amount of playing time for my first season with guys.”
It looked as though Teixeira would take over the starting role between the Riots’ pipes this season, but Michaud decided to return to South Portland after playing last year with the Portland Junior Pirates.
“I opened up a landscaping business, and I wanted to go full bore with that,” he says. “So I decided to go back and play hockey with my friends.”
In the meantime, Teixeira had improved, and having a pair of quality goaltenders is a problem that Keinath is not complaining about.
“We alternate to a degree. Matt is pretty much our starting goalie, but Amanda is such a strong second goalie she could pretty much start on any other team,” says the coach. “It’s unfair to call her the back-up, so we have two starters. Both have been great.”
For some, an arrangement like this might lead to some tension, but both Michaud and Teixeira seem quite supportive of each other.
“I think she deserves every minute she gets,” says Michaud.
“We’re really good friends on and off the ice,” Teixeira says. “I just improve myself by watching him.”
And Riots’ hockey benefits from having both on the roster.
“They are happy for each other when they do well, and they stay active and positive on the bench,” says Keinath. “It’s a shame that they both have to be seniors, but they’re great to work with.”
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