Ondrej Pavelec

It's no secret that I love goalies and players with my heritage or similar heritage. So it's no surprise that I like Ondrej Pavelec. Ondrej is close to my age and is full blooded Czech! He is so sweet. I believe I told the stories about our little interactions but I'll tell them again. One time I went to practice and when he came off the ice I went to talk with him. I told him that my ancestors came over from Slovakia when it was still Czechoslovakia, he was so happy and in turn I was happy to have made someone else so happy! Then a while after that, at the end of the season, I went to see the boys one last time and Ondrej came off the ice straight to the locker room I was concerned cause Ondrej never did that he always stopped to signed stuff. Later he came out in a T-shirt and shorts, he was so tiny!! It always amazes me how small goalies are in regular clothes . I got his attention and told him that I was wanting to be a goalie partly because of him. Before I finished the phrase and just got out that I wanted to be a goalie he seemed so shocked and amazed that there was a girl insane enough to become a goalie then when he heard it was because of him he got all embarrassed but you could tell it honored him for me to say that. He thanked me finished signing stuff and attempted to get back to the locker room, it was locked. Ondrej is a 6 foot 3 inch tall teddy bear that was born on August 31st 1987 in Kladno Czech Republic. Ondrej was like most kids from Europe and liked to play tennis. He also likes playing golf and soccer. Why all these hockey players and coaches like playing golf I have no clue! If he wasn't playing hockey he said he would like to be playing soccer professionally. Ondrej's family is a hockey family with both his sister and dad coaching back in Czech. Ondrej said he had 2 dreams; playing in college and living that life style then the second dream was to play in the NHL. Ondrej was on the road to his second dream in 2005 when he got drafted by the thrashers and the Thrashers gave him no choice but to play in Juniors. Before he played in juniors he played in Czech. The stats aren't all the way filled out but I'll give you what I can fined. In the 2003-2004 he played in 38 games seeing 3 shoot outs and 77 goals against. It doesn't list the wins or loses for that season or the one that followed. He also went to playoffs that season playing in 2 games and facing 7 goals against making his goals against average 6.27. In the 2004-2005 Jr season Ondrej was in 39 games seeing 7 shoot outs and seeing 85 goals against. In the other league he played in that same season he played in only one game and saw no shootouts. He saw only 4 goals against. His goal against averages (the number of goals allowed per hour of play divided by total number of minutes played) were 2.22, 2.30, and 4.00.He played in playoffs this year too playing in 10 games with one shoot out and facing 24 goals against making his goals against average 2.45. In the 2005-2006 season he was playing in juniors with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. In that season he played in 47 games won 27 of them and lost 18. He saw 3 shoot outs, 108 goals against and 1,515 shots against. His saves percentage (the number of saves made divided by the number of shots on goal) was .929 while his goals against average was 2.51. In post season he played in 9 games winning 4 losing 5. He had 19 goals against and 258 shots against. He saves percentage was .926 while his goals against average was 2.25. He spent one more season with the juniors and even played in the junior world Championships. While playing in juniors that final season he played in 43 games, winning 28 of them and losing 11, seeing 1 shoot out. Ondrej faced 98 goals against with 1,o64 shots against. His saves Percentage was .908 and his goals against average was 2.52. In post season he played in 16 games winning 11 and losing 5 with 2 shootouts. He faced 37 goals against and 460 shots against. His saves percenetage was .920 and his goals against average was 2.29. In the junior world championships that year he played in 5 games, faced 15 goals against, 136 shots against and his goals against average was 3.28. In 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 he had to split his time between the Chicago wolves and the Atlanta thrashers. In the 2007-2008 season with the thrashers he had 7 games, 3 wins and 3 losses. He faced 18 goals against and 190 shots against with a saves percentage of .905 and a goals against average of 3.11. In that same year with the wolves he played 52 games winning 33 and losing 16 with 3 ties and 2 shoot outs. He faced 140 goals against with 1,568 shots against. His saves percentage was.911 while his goals against average was 2.77. While with the wolves that year he played in 24 games that post season winning 16 and losing 8 with 2 shootouts. He faced 56 goals against and 705 shots against. He had a Saves percentage of .921 and a goals against average of 2.34. In 2008-2009 with the thrashers he played in 12 games with 3 wins and 7 losses. He faced 36 goals against and 301 shots against. His saves average was .880 while his goals against average was 3.61. With the wolves that year he played 40 games winning 18, losing 20 and tying 2 with 3 shoot outs. He faced 104 goals against and 1,205 shots against. he had a saves percentage of .910 and had a goals against average of 2.58. This past season (2009-2010) he didn't have to split his time he could focus on the thrashers and he was even our starting goalie! He played in 42 games winning 14, losing 18 with 7 overtimes and 2 shootouts. He faced 127 goals against and 1,353 shots against. His saves percentage was .906 while his goals against average was 3.29. This was also the year he made a maskless save which was pretty impressive. He also played back up goalie in the Olympics and world championships winning no medal in the Olympics but winning the gold at worlds. He is such a good guy and I wish him all the best!