ONTARIO — If you’re going to talk to a goalie before an All-Star Game, best to do it beforehand. He might not be in such a great frame of mind afterward.
Then again, Cal Petersen ought to be used to it by now.
Petersen, one of three hometown players to represent the Pacific Division in Monday night’s AHL All-Star Game at Ontario’s Toyota Arena, is in his third season with the Ontario Reign, which means his third season of apprenticeship behind Jonathan Quick and Jack Campbell in the Kings organization.
It has been a season of transition in this organization for the AHL team as well as the NHL team. Reign coach Mike Stothers is implementing the faster and more aggressive system Todd McLellan has introduced to the big club. And a new system and younger players in front of Petersen means he faces a lot of pucks on a nightly basis.
His 16-15-4 record and 3.45 goals-against average during regular AHL play are deceptive, because he has faced more shots than any other goalie in the league – and it isn’t close: 1,234 in 36 games, or 34.3 per game.
The No. 3 goalie in that category (944 shots in 27 games, 33.7 per game) is San Diego’s Anthony Stolarz, a Ducks prospect who is basically in the same boat: Organization in transition, new coach, new system. He, too, was a Pacific Division All-Star in Monday night’s 3-on-3 cavalcade of 10-minute mini-games that was eventually won by the Atlantic Division, which went undefeated in the round-robin and defeated the Central 3-1 in the six-minute final game.
The skaters had a blast. Reign defenseman Kale Clague had a goal and five assists, plus a shootout goal in a win over the Central Division. Ontario’s Martin Frk had two assists and San Diego’s Chris Wideman added a goal, in an environment where there was less contact in the regular game than there was in the mascots’ game during intermission.
(No, seriously. Two of the mascots got in a pretend fight at center ice. None of the real players even pretended to hit each other.)
The goalies? They had to take their fun where they could find it.
“I was kind of joking that I should be pretty used to it or at least maybe have an advantage,” Petersen said before the game. “The goalies sometimes get a little bit exposed, or kind of on the butt-end of things, but it’s a fun chance for us to make some kind of big desperation saves, too.”
It’s pretty much the consensus that Petersen will be an NHL goalie at some point, the only question being when. The Kings signed him in 2017 at the end of his junior year at Notre Dame, where he’d played three seasons and was team captain in his junior year, with a 2.22 goals-against average in 40 games for a team that reached the semifinals of the NCAA Frozen Four.
He split time with Campbell as an AHL rookie in 2017-18, earning a trip to the All-Star festivities in Utica, N.Y., with a 23-14-2 record and 2.54 goals-against. Last season his stats in 11 games with the Kings (5-4-1, 2.61) were better than those in 38 games with Ontario (13-22-1, 4.02).
The path to the NHL is still clogged by Quick, the veteran, and Campbell, who preceded Petersen at Ontario. But this should be an indication of how highly Petersen is thought of by his organization: The Kings signed him to a three-year contract extension last July. It’s a two-way contract this year ($200,000 in the AHL, the pro-rated portion of $700,000 for any time he spends in the NHL), but converts to a one-way deal at $875,000 next season and $1 million in 2021-22 regardless of whether he’s in the AHL or NHL.
In the meantime, patience isn’t just a virtue. It’s a necessity, starting with the challenges of this year.
“Being with a young team, there’s a lot of up and down,” said Petersen, 25. “And I think we’re kind of starting to get a little bit more level; our highs aren’t as high and our lows aren’t as low. … We’re starting to get some habits drilled in and things that we’ve been preaching all year I think are starting to take hold.
“… We’re definitely trying to get more scoring and be more aggressive. And I think sometimes you run the risk of odd-man rushes the other way, and there’s been a little bit of that. The way we do our forecheck, it kind of sets up for teams to dump the puck in, so it gives me a lot of chances to handle pucks and kind of be a sixth man back there and make some plays with it. So that part of it has been fun.”
There are frequent reminders of his eventual goal. The Reign practices on the same El Segundo ice sheet as the Kings, usually going first in the morning. Petersen said he’ll take a peek at a Kings practice occasionally and might say hello to Quick or Campbell in passing, but otherwise, he minds his business.
“You know, there’s only so many nets,” he said. “And sometimes you just have to wait your turn. So the most important thing is that I try not to worry about what goes on up there, and just make sure I’m in the best possible position whenever the time comes to be ready to make that jump.”
In the meantime, for what it’s worth, he’s a two-time AHL All-Star. This time, he pulled on the pads at his regular locker in his regular dressing room. He gave up six goals on 20 shots in his 14:41, including one to former Ontario teammate Matt Moulson, but made some nice saves while dealing with frequent outnumbered attacks.
And just to show that he’d captured the spirit of the thing, Petersen drew an assist, too.