15-year-old goalkeeper Matthew Hutchison adds to his long hockey history with BCHL’s first win

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Matthew Hutchison was five years old when he first appeared in InGoal magazine testing children’s equipment.

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All these years later, he’s finding ways to look more and more at home with goalkeeping gear with each passing day.

Hutchison, who celebrated his 15th birthday on October 7, made his BC Hockey League regular season debut on Sunday as a minor with the Cowichan Valley Capitals (2-7-0-0) and was named the The game’s first star after a 51-save outing in a 4-2 win over the Vernon Vipers (3-3-1-1) at the Cowichan Community Center.

The Nanaimo product’s ties to InGoal stem from the fact that he is the son of David Hutchison, who founded the online publication in 2009. A former teacher at Shawnigan Lake, Major Hutchison was a self-proclaimed “mediocre doorman” who had a “very, very little cup of coffee with McGill ”, in his college days.

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He joined forces with journalist Kevin Woodley on the subscription-based product after the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, and they have built InGoal to the point where they routinely have stories with the best disc plugs in the game. For example, Tuesday’s InGoal Twitter feed had links to pieces with advice from Roberto Luongo, Thatcher Demko and Carey Price.

Young Hutchison admits that he has benefited from the kind of access and knowledge that most young people don’t get. InGoal has even asked you to do interviews with professional goalkeepers over the years to accompany your equipment reviews.

He started playing hockey at age four, knew his father’s history as a goalie, and says that playing the position himself “felt like the right thing to do.”

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“I’ve met a lot of guys and it has meant a lot to me,” Hutchison said. “And to see what my dad does with the players for the website … I wouldn’t be here without my dad and everyone else with InGoal.”

James Gaertner, a Cowichan Valley assistant coach who has also worked individually with Hutchison for years, is quick to maintain that “Hutchinson’s love of the position is his.

“It is driven. I see him two or three times a week. He’s trying to get better all the time, ”Gaertner said of the 6-foot-2, 160-pound Hutchison. “You can’t fake effort, you can’t fake acceptance.”

Gaertner has been training goalkeepers for 17 years and maintains that Hutchison is one of the best he has seen at this age. And Gaertner has worked with Dylan Garand, the Kamloops Blazers goalkeeper who is in contention to be the Canadian team’s starter at the Junior World Cup this winter, as well as Vegas Golden Knights farmer Dylan Ferguson.

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“He’s calm and ready with a very strong technical base,” Gaertner said. “At the same time, he doesn’t rely too much on that technical foundation. When it comes time to fight in a play, he fights.

“I would get used to hearing his name.”

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The BCHL is something Hutchison has grown accustomed to over the years. His family has regularly hosted Nanaimo Clippers players. This season, in fact, they are recruiting Clippers goalkeeper Cooper Black.

There is a picture circulating on social media of a six-year-old Hutchison on the ice in his full gear for the national anthem of a Capitals game as the seventh man minor hockey. And Hutchison actually went to Clippers training camp when he was 12, helping fill out the rosters there.

“I remember the first goal I gave up. That was wrong. But I calmed down after that, ”Hutchison said.

His full-time team this season is the U-18 North Island Silvertips, who are based in Nanaimo. He had multiple offers to be a called-up or affiliated player with a BCHL team and chose Cowichan Valley. There is an obvious connection there with Gaertner.

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The Capitals gave him a preseason start against the hometown Clippers on September 28, and he posted 32 saves in a 4-2 win that night.

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Due to injury, Cowichan Valley brought in Hutchison to back up on Friday. So they told him it would start on Sunday.

“My goal for as long as I can remember was to play a game in the league when I was 15 years old,” Hutchison said. “I have never been as excited to hit the track as that day. It was finally happening. “

He talks to his Cowichan Valley teammates, saying the Capitals have instantly made him feel welcome.

“It’s the best group of guys,” he said. “I go into the locker room and I feel like I can ask anyone anything. They have all been incredible. “

Hutchison will have to decide at some point whether he wants to continue in the BCHL and go the NCAA route or go the WHL route. Hutchison is eligible for the WHL Draft next month. He maintains that it is still not clear to him.

“My focus is right now,” he said. “I’m not getting too ahead of myself.”

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Twitter: @SteveEwen