Patera enjoys spring to remember

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This article was published 06/09/2023 (859 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jiri Patera got the call he had been patiently waiting for on March 8.

The 24-year-old former Brandon Wheat Kings goaltender was in Thousand Palms, Calif., with the Henderson Silver Knights for an American Hockey League game against the Coachella Valley Firebirds. The phone rang while Patera was having his game-day nap.

It was former Winnipeg Jets netminder Fred Brathwaite, who now serves as Henderson’s goalie coach, calling to tell him he had to fly to Tampa because Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Adin Hill was injured and the National Hockey League club needed him.

Patera got on the plane that evening, arrived around 7 o’clock the next morning, practised and backed up Jonathan Quick on March 9 against the Lightning.

The road trip continued with a game against the Carolina Hurricanes on March 11, and that’s where Patera learned he would be starting on March 12 against the host St. Louis Blues at Enterprise Center.

“I was just trying to get myself ready for it before it hits you,” Patera said. “It’s the game you’ve been working for your whole life and you want to do well.”

He describes it as crazy at the start when he thought about himself in the NHL, but it didn’t take long for that feeling to go away. In fact, it was replaced by a puck in the mask.

“I kind of got into it with the first shot when it hit me in the face and my helmet kind of fell off,” Patera said. “Right when that happened I was ‘All right, this is the big league and the guys can really shoot it.’

“After that, I didn’t think anything of it and just kept playing. I had a great team in front of me. The Vegas defencemen are unbelievable so it was really easy for me. “Obviously the first thought was ‘Holy smokes, this is really happening’ but then I zoned into the game and just let everything on the outside be whatever and just focus on the next shot.”

His parents couldn’t make it from Prague because it was such short notice, but the two friends he lives with in Las Vegas were able to make the trip.

He turned aside 30 saves in his NHL debut, a 5-3 victory.

“The most important thing was for me to get the win, and it was such a great experience to have that first game,” Patera said. “After that, they told me I was going to play a second game and flew my parents in, and my best friend from back home that I grew up with flew down there too.

“It was just a great experience all around.”

Exactly one week later on March 19, Patera boosted his NHL record to 2-0-0-0 with a 35-save performance in a 7-2 victory over the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets at T-Mobile Arena.

Patera was sent back to Henderson on March 20, where the six-foot-two, 209-pound goaltender spent most of last season, appearing in 31 games and posting a 2.86 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage.

But his time with Vegas wasn’t over. He was summoned back to Vegas on May 10 as an emergency backup after Laurent Brossoit was sidelined, with Hill and Quick dressing as the Golden Knights beat the Edmonton Oilers in the second round.

He travelled with the team for the rest of the playoffs on the taxi squad, skating each day with the team’s extra players to stay ready. He was there on June 13 when the Knights blasted the visiting Florida Panthers 9-3 in Game 5 to win the Stanley Cup.

“It was just an unbelievable experience for all of us, even guys from Henderson who were working hard all season and got to experience it too,” Patera said. “It was just a great time.”

The fact he did it with former Wheat Kings owner and current Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon made it even more special. McCrimmon was with Vegas when they drafted him but still owned Brandon when Patera was assigned to the Wheat Kings.

He marvels at the work McCrimmon has done.

“In six years they got the Stanley Cup, which was their goal,” Patera said. “Him and George McPhee did an amazing job in acquiring guys and drafting guys too. The whole six years fell into each other and it worked out the way it did. That’s going to be tough to beat.”

That’s not the only Brandon connection in Patera’s story.

Patera began to get more time in net in the AHL after former Wheat Kings goaltender Logan Thompson was called up by the Golden Knights, and received his callup to the NHL in part because Thompson got hurt.

Patera signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the organization in June 2020, but due to the pandemic delaying play in North America, he spent the first half of the 2020-21 season at home with HC Motor České Budějovice in the Czech league. He joined the Silver Knights later in the season and made seven appearances.

He split the 2021-22 season between the Silver Knights and the ECHL’s Fort Wayne Komets.

“The first two years were the biggest adjustment for me, especially because pro hockey is a lot different than junior,” Patera said. “It’s a big step up. It’s a lot different. With the off-ice stuff, you’re taking care of your own bills and living so it’s a big adjustment.”

After a season with the USHL’s Cedar Rapids RoughRiders, the product of Prague, Czech Republic came to the Western Hockey League when Brandon picked him in the second round of the 2018 Canadian Hockey League import draft.

During 89 WHL appearances in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons, Patera had a 46-32-5-4 record, 2.95 goals-against average and a save percentage of .913 with six shutouts. In 2020, he was named the Eastern Conference’s goaltender of the year in 2020 and to the first all-star team.

He spent about a week and a half in Brandon last summer, helping Wheat Kings goalie coach Tyler Plante with his goaltending school and working out at the Wheat Kings gym.

This summer, he planned to be in Brandon a lot longer but spent 16 or 17 days in Brandon after the long season only allowed him six weeks in Prague. He was front and centre at Wheat Kings training camp, serving as coach of one of the three teams.

Patera billeted with James and Monika Montgomery in Brandon, and by coincidence, James was refereeing Saturday’s night game when Patera was behind the bench. The goaltender said he wasn’t shy about letting the referee know after he missed a call.

“He didn’t give us many calls so I had to,” Patera said with a laugh. “I was just telling “Jamie, come on, I didn’t really like the non-call on that last play.’ The puck doesn’t lie, and I had my first win as a coach so I was happy with that.

“It was all fun and games. The guys are here to compete and try to make the team. There is a lot of talent out there on the ice. That’s why the CHL is the best junior league in the world.”

During his stay in Brandon, Patera has been able to chat with the newest Wheat Kings import, Dominik Petr. The two were both taking part in a skate at J&G Homes Arena prior to camp when they first met.

“I knew a Czech guy was coming here but I didn’t know what he looked like,” Patera said. “Then he came up to me and started talking to me in Czech so we were chit-chatting.

“I saw him a couple of times in the gym and then I was his coach for two days. He already speaks really good English so he doesn’t need any help with that.

“He’s a really good kid and a real good player. I think he’s going to be a great player and a really good contributor for the team this season.”

Patera lives in Vegas all season, so he’s had a few addresses in the seven years since he left Prague. That makes the definition of where home is slightly more complicated than for most people, but he still leans to the place he grew up.

“Obviously Prague is always my home because that’s where my whole family is from and most of my buddies are from, so it’s hard to say right now,” Patera said. “I’ve been in Vegas most of the time so I kind of consider Vegas home, but it’s different when you get to go home to your homeland and see your parents and friends you grew up with.”

But Brandon is in the equation too. The personable netminder, who quickly became a fan favourite during his time with the Wheat Kings, said the city remains close to his heart.

“I love it here,” Patera said. “People always ask me ‘Why do you come to Brandon?’ I spent two years here. I’m not a big fan of the winters but coming here in the summer and seeing all the familiar faces and getting to hang out with Tyler and some of the Wheat Kings I played with in the past, and seeing guys like Scooter (equipment manager Scott Hlady), the good old faces.

“People in Brandon are always nice. That’s why I keep coming here.”

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