15-year-old Cranbrook native Payton Lee earned 2 wins in his 1st 2 starts on the weekend for the Vancouver Giants ...
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VANCOUVER - At 15, Payton Lee is sometimes mentioned as the Vancouver Giants' goalie of the future but he appears far ahead of schedule.
The baby-faced midget callup won his second start in two tries Sunday, a 3-2 victory over the Seattle Thundebirds, and has become the goalie of the present with No. 1 man Adam Morrison sidelined by a head injury. Morrison's regular backup, Jackson Whistle, has struggled to get results, prompting coach Don Hay to give Lee an opportunity. The move turned out to be a mah-vellous one.
“Obviously I didn't expect to win two games,” Lee said. “I just thought I was going to come here and back up Jackson, who is a great goalie. It's been great to get some experience here.”
Lee, selected 28th in last May's bantam draft, stopped 24 Seattle shots to accompany the 19 saves he had in his Friday debut over Everett. Both were one-goal games but Lee showed no panic in the dying minutes either night.
Hay, a hard man to please, was impressed.
“He had a good weekend,” said The Don. “To come in and get two wins for us at a real critical time was important. He plays with a lot of confidence and he doesn't get rattled. Hopefully, he can continue to improve.”
Lee had an interesting night Sunday as the Giants held the T-Birds without a single shot during the first period. The shot total climbed to nine in the middle periood and 17 in the third when Seattle netted both its goals, one on a scramble and the other on a power play.
The Giants didn't ice their strongest lineup in front of Lee with both top defenceman David Musil (wrist) and top scorer Brendan Gallagher (shoulder) still sidelined by injury.
“For a callup goalie, at age 15, it can be intimidating in any league,” noted Giants defenceman Wes Vannieuwenhuizen. “Payton played very well for us. He looked really confident back there and, whenever your goalie is playing confidently, it puts confidence in the whole team.”