Patera thankful for Brandon experience

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This article was published 02/04/2020 (2111 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jiri Patera didn’t know a lot about Brandon, Manitoba two years ago.

He knows enough now that it wasn’t easy to leave.

The 21-year-old goaltender from Prague, Czech Republic finished up his time in the Western Hockey League last month when the season and playoffs were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It capped what’s been an outstanding three-year junior career, two of them spent with the Brandon Wheat Kings.

“I felt comfortable right off the start,” Patera said. “It was amazing people, amazing billets (James and Monika Montgomery), they helped me a lot with everything. Baron Thompson took me everywhere. He and Zach Wytinck were giving me rides my whole first year and showed me Brandon. That helped me a lot, especially to know where everything is and get to know the boys better.”

Remarkably, at least based on how far he’s come, Patera didn’t have much of a grasp of English when he arrived in North America three years ago to join the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders of the USHL.

He said that was an important first step.

“The biggest thing was probably the language,” said Patera, who now speaks English fluently. “In the first year when I was in the USHL, I had was kind of struggling understanding what everyone was saying when I was talking to people and obviously what the coach wants from us and all that kind of stuff. Once I got used to it, I was pretty comfortable with it.”

The Vegas Golden Knights picked Patera in the sixth round of the 2017 National Hockey League entry draft, and he made the move to Cedar Rapids, Iowa for the 2017-18 season.

When Patera was there, he was getting bored with the extra time on his hands. He always wanted to learn to play the piano, so his mom bought him a keyboard when his parents came to visit.

“I was teaching myself how to play the piano for the first time,” Patera said. “I loved the sound of it and it was something to do. It just makes me relax and forget about the world. I’ve been playing for three years now and I think I’m pretty decent.”

He hasn’t had any formal training yet, and can’t read music, so he memorizes things and plays them.

Patera was at a Vegas development camp when the Canadian Hockey League’s import draft was held in 2018. Goalie coaches Mike Rosati and Dave Prior told Patera and Russian netminder Maksim Zhukov, a fourth-round pick by Vegas in 2017 who would go on to play with the Ontario Hockey League’s Barrie Colts, that the CHL was an excellent place to develop.

“They said I should go the CHL,” Patera said. “It was me and Maks. We had no idea what team would draft us but I knew that Kelly (McCrimmon) was the owner of Brandon and there was a possibility to go there.

“I talked to Reid Duke and Daniel Bukac and some guys who played there who I kind of knew and they said it was an amazing place to play and all these nice things. I was pretty excited when I got back to the dressing room after practice and found out I was drafted by Brandon.”

Brandon took him in the second round of that draft after defenceman Erik Brannstrom, who never reported and actually played some games in the NHL with the Ottawa Senators the next season, after being traded for former Wheat Kings forward Mark Stone.

In 48 games in his rookie WHL season, Patera posted a 3.31 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage.

“I knew it was a really tough league to play in,” Patera said. “It was young players but all of them were really good. I wasn’t really surprised, I was prepared for it. It’s the best junior league in the world.”

During his first season in Brandon, Patera earned a spot on the Czech Republic’s team at the 2019 world junior hockey championship.

It wasn’t his first taste of action with the national club. He also played for Czech Republic at under-16, U17 and U18 events.

When he returned from worlds, Brandon finished just outside out of the playoffs, something that hit Patera hard.

“It was pretty frustrating that we couldn’t get it done,” Patera said. “It was really disappointing.”

The Czech netminder spent just six weeks at home last summer. Instead, he worked worked on his game with Wheat Kings goalie coach Tyler Plante.

“I didn’t want any distractions from hockey,” Patera said. “It was just going to the gym and hanging out with the Brandon boys (from the Wheat Kings). I liked the place, and I had amazing billets: Jamie and Monika let me hang out at their place the entire summer. It was just such good time. I enjoyed it a lot, basically spending the whole summer in Brandon.”

Patera said the work he has done with Plante and Rosati, who is the goaltending development coach for Vegas, has helped his game a lot, and also benefited his goaltending partner and close friend Ethan Kruger.

“Tyler is such a great person to talk to,” Patera said. “On the ice he just helps us so much, me and Krugs, we get so comfortable knowing he always stands up behind us and helps us to get better. All the goalie sessions he’s done for both of us and for me in the summer, he took care of me. I really appreciated that.

“Mike is such a great guy. Every time he comes to Brandon or I’m with him in Vegas, he’s just so helpful on the ice. He just wants us to do the best that we can.”

His second season in Brandon came with some significant adversity.

Patera aggravated an ankle issue against the Saskatoon Blades on Oct. 6. After the game he had trouble walking on his right ankle, which looked like it had half a tennis ball growing out of it due to swelling.

“I took my skate off and I was in so much pain,” Patera said. “I could barely walk. I thought it was something minor so me and (athletic therapist) Will (Sadonick-Carriere) were icing it and the next day we tried to maintain it. We didn’t think it was a big deal so I got it drained. The next day I practised with it and that was probably the most painful practice I’ve ever experienced.”

They soon discovered the ankle was infected and surgery was performed shortly after the team left for the West Coast road trip on Oct. 12. Patera was given a ride to Winnipeg and spent two nights in hospital. He was then on crutches for a week.

“It was probably the hardest time, being by myself in Brandon while the boys were on the road,” Patera said.

He didn’t play again until Nov. 8. Patera still wasn’t performing as well as he hoped, and Kruger was starting in front of him, until Rosati made another visit.

It proved to be a turning point.

“He helped me a lot to work on my game and get myself confidence back and just do those little things that help me to be a better goaltender,” Patera said.

Patera appeared in 41 games during the season, posting a 2.55 goals-against average and a save percentage of .921, but he was outstanding in the second half. In one memorable run, he didn’t allow a goal in 156 minutes and 26 seconds and was twice named the league’s goalie of the week in a three-week span.

The Wheat Kings also took flight. On Dec. 28, they were 15-17-1-2, but by March 7 when the season ended, they were 35-22-4-2 as they went 20-5-3-0 down the stretch.

“We were trying to figure out what kind of team we were,” Patera said. “I don’t think we were playing very good hockey at the start of the year and then since the Christmas break, we had one of the top records in the Eastern Conference. I think we started playing the way we should have all season.

“Dave Lowry did such an amazing job of doing those matchups on the ice and just motivating us every single game. When we lost a game, we knew we let him down and you never want to let your coach down.”

Patera never got a chance to participate in a playoff game in the WHL after the season was postponed and later cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said he felt worst for the team’s three overagers, who saw their junior careers end off the ice.

“It’s such a sad ending to the season because all of us were looking forward to playing in the playoffs and maybe starting at home for the first round,” Patera said. “Everyone’s health is way more important than sports.”

Last week, the six-foot-two, 205-pounder was honoured for his efforts when he was named the club’s most valuable player, top graduating player, three stars award and fans’ choice award winner.

In his WHL career, he played in 89 games, with a 2.95 average and a .913 save percentage.

Patera, who hasn’t signed with Vegas yet, isn’t sure what’s next. His agents are exploring his options — Vegas has his rights for another year — but he hopes to return to North America.

Patera said he knows what he’ll remember in the future when he thinks about his time in Brandon.

“Just the amazing fans, the group that we had — we had so much fun on and off the ice — and just all the memories from the summer,” Patera said. “It would be better if there were memories from playoffs but it’s all the guys on the team, every single one of them.”

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