Maine Hockey Journal

Goaltender commits to UMaine

Topeka Roadrunners goaltender Tyler Johnson had a tough showing in his call-up to the Chicago Steel of the United States Hockey League as he suffered a 6-0 loss to the Green Bay Gamblers on Dec. 12 but it provided a step in his goal of playing college hockey.

The 6-foot-3, 185-pound Amherst, New York native had a chance to meet with University of Maine head coach Dennis “Red” Gendron during his short time in the Windy City. Johnson, 17, has put impressive numbers with Topeka of the North American Hockey League where he has a 13-7 record with a 2.28 goals-against average and a .911 save-percentage.

The meeting was set up by Johnson’s goalie coach in Topeka, Joe Clark – an Augusta native – who had two stints as a Maine assistant in 1987-88 and 1991-92.

“Joe Clark did help me get in contact with Maine the past couple of months,” Johnson said. “While I was up in Chicago, Red saw me at practice, we sat down and talked a little bit. After that, it was back with Joe Clark who helped me with the whole process of getting me into Maine.”

Gendron was willing to give Johnson a chance to play Division I hockey when he was off the radar for most other schools because his legibility is in question.

Johnson has seen the country chasing his hockey dream as he’s spent time with the Northern Cyclones of Hudson, N.H., the TPH Thunder of Atlanta Georgia and Compuware of Plymouth, Mich. before arriving in Topeka, Kansas and his quick stint in Chicago.

Last season while with the Compuware 18U team of the High Performance Hockey League he was called up by the Plymouth Whalers of the Ontario Hockey League, who were in a bind.

With Alex Nedeljkovic out at the World Junior Hockey Championship with Team USA and backup Zack Bowman suffering an injury, Johnson who was drafted by Plymouth in the seventh round in 2014 was summoned to start the Dec. 30th game against the Windsor Spitfires where he allowed three goals in nearly 11 minutes of action before getting pulled for Bowman.

That short stint in the OHL didn’t deter him from looking at the college route knowing he had forfeited one year of eligibility because the NCAA considers the OHL a professional league.

“It’s tough for any team to look at a guy who played in the OHL and wanted to take a chance with him not knowing how long he would be out or whatever,” Johnson said. “I sat down with my family, Topeka, and my (family adviser), we made a decision I wanted to go to college. That’s the route we took, the team and my (adviser) did everything they could to get me into a college.”

Right now, he’s scheduled to sit out the 2017-18 season, but he and the University of Maine are appealing that ruling in hope to get the suspension reduced or revoked altogether.

“My (adviser) and the University of Maine are going to try to appeal to the NCAA,” Johnson said. “They are going to try to get my suspension less than a year, hopefully just a game or two.”

He chose the University of Maine because of the strong hockey program and a strong business program.

“Maine is a really good hockey school and has a ton of past goaltenders in the NHL doing really well,” Johnson said. “I really want to study business, and I know they have a pretty good business school out in Maine. So it fit really well.”

Maine is getting a hardworking player.

“Tyler is really a hardworking individual,” Topeka Roadrunners GM and coach Scott Langer said. He’s definitely a kid who was raised right the right way. Off the ice, his character is really big. That’s one of the reasons why we took him in Topeka because he’s such a character kid that did things the right way.”

Johnson said his biggest strength as a goaltender is playing the puck as he likes to help his defensemen out. He also said he has a strong glove hand and doesn’t drop too many pucks.

“It’s not normal for a young goaltender to make the transition from midget hockey to junior hockey,” Langer said. “I think Tyler has done a real good job weigh through that transition process, and he had success. A lot of that has to do with his work ethic.”

The NAHL has been known as a goaltender factory at both the professional and collegiate level as former Black Bears Ben Bishop, and Scott Darling applied their trade in the nation’s only Tier II league under the USA Hockey umbrella before heading to Orono.

Johnson knows he can get better with all aspects of the game.

“With every young hockey player, I think they need to continue to work on their overall strength in their body,” Langer said. “That’s really going to help them move along in their career. Tyler is no different. He’s a big lanky goaltender and as a young 98 (birth year), his body is not done growing. When it comes to playing, he got all the stuff when it comes to goaltending.”

Johnson’s coming to Maine is contingent upon his acceptance into the school and meeting NCAA eligibility requirements.

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