By Kristi Patton /
Watching from the bench was a tough pill for Morgan Glover to swallow last season.
But, it was from that very vantage point, as the Edmonton Thunder backup goaltender, she gained a new perspective.
“Coming out of Bantam to Midget AAA the first year was a big eye-opener for me. I don’t want to say I was cocky but I didn’t think it would be as much of a challenge as it was,” admits Glover of her first season in the Alberta Major Midget Female Hockey League last year. “It was hard, I had never been in that backup position but I tried to take away from it as much as I could and it made me realize how much harder I have to work to be a starter.”
While sitting on the bench watching dipped her confidence a bit, it was getting to play in the first-ever Esso Cup that got things looking up. Down 3-0 to the Calgary Flyers, Glover got tapped to step in as relief in the first period. Stopping 10 of the 11 shots she faced, Glover earned the right to play in the bronze medal game. Even though the Thunder didn’t come out with a medal, the experience they earned through winning the AMMFHL championship and playing in the Esso Cup was priceless.
“I hadn’t played for a month or so because our starting goalie had been playing so consistent.
Having played in a big tournament like that made me realize how much work it takes to comeback. I hope that we are lucky enough to get back to the Esso Cup this year,” she said.
Taking last season as a learning step, Glover worked over the summer to make sure she was physically and mentally fit to earn the starting role with the Thunder this year. The goaltender’s stats so far this season proves that she was doing something right. Glover leads the league at the start of November with a save percentage of 0.972. She credits her work with John Stevenson at the Goalie Centre in Edmonton for her consistency.
“I owe almost everything to my goalie coach – I couldn’t have done it without him. Our team coach is really great too. I have come along way with him and he has supported me the whole time,” she said.
While the Thunder haven’t been posting big numbers on the scoreboard early into the season, they still have been getting wins thanks to tough defensive play and Glover’s stellar performance between the pipes.
“A lot of us returning know what it takes and how important it is to get a strong start and we have been working really hard to achieve that. We don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves but we want to qualify for the big tournaments at Notre Dame and the Mac’s,” said Glover. |