Red Deer Rebels goaltender Chase Wutzke has few pregame rituals or superstitions.
He just puts on his pads, and his helmet like everyone else and heads out onto the ice.
It’s simple but effective.
That frame of mind along with his stellar play in net last week earned him the Western Hockey League’s Goaltender of the Week.
The 17-year-old from Debden, Sask. went 2-0-0-0 as a starter and stopped all eight shots he faced in a relief effort in a 5-2 loss to the Brandon Wheat Kings.
His solid week in net resulted in a .88 goals against average and a .970 save percentage.
“It’s good to get some recognition from the league and now that I’m playing a little bit more often it feels good to start getting some more eyes on me,” Wutzke said on Tuesday.
Wutzke’s week started in Brandon in relief but his performance earned him the starting job in Moose Jaw the next night where he stopped 21 of 22 shots in a 5-1 win over the Warriors.
After teammate Rhett Stoesser started the game in Saskatoon on Friday, Wutzke was back in the net on Saturday in Prince Albert.
He once again was a brick wall for his team stopping 35 of 36 shots in a 2-1 victory at the Art Hauser Centre.
“They were road games and they were kind of hometown games for me. It was definitely cool to be in front of all my family and friends,” he said.
“I go into every game with the kind of mindset that it’s just another game and you never know what’s going to happen.”
Wutzke is certainly playing with a ton of confidence and it’s showing on the ice.
In the 2021-22 season, he appeared in three games, and four in the 2022-23 campaign while also playing full-time with the Saskatoon Contacts in the Saskatchewan U18 AAA league.
This season is different because he earned himself a role as a starter the Rebels coaching staff can depend on regularly.
That’s resulted in him playing in nine games so far this year posting a 5-2-0-1 record, a 2.61 GAA, and a .911 save percentage.
“Now that I’ve seen what I can do in this league it’s been a big confidence booster,” he said.
However, coming into this season he didn’t know what his role would be.
With three great goalies on the roster, management had to make a decision on which two they were going to go with.
On Oct. 30, Red Deer traded goaltender Kyle Kelsey to the Tri-City Americans putting their trust in both Wutzke and Stoesser.
“It’s been huge,” Wutzke added.
“Going into camp knowing there’s three goalies coming in and not knowing what’s going on and who’s going to be getting moved… That’s been a huge confidence booster too knowing that they can trust me and Rhett.”
Although it was tough to see Kelsey go, Wutzke is thankful for the Rebels’ belief in him. It also doesn’t hurt that he and Stoesser are great friends.
“Me and Stoess are really good buddies. We’re both farm boys so it’s kinda cool that way,” he said.
“We’re pretty calm guys. We don’t have very much stuff we do. Me and him we do the same thing we play a little bit of sewer ball and that’s pretty much it.”
Wutzke gave credit to Rebels goaltending coach Ian Gordon who’s worked with him even before his time with the Rebels. Playing behind a defence as prominent as Red Deer’s has also helped keep some of their opponents at bay, even those with deep lineups.
“The boys on the backend even everybody all five guys on the ice have been really good clearing guys out of the front of the net letting us see the puck,” Wutzke said. “It’s been really good.”
The Rebels are 7-3 in their last 10 games with some big games coming up this week that could impact the standings.
They are back in action on Wednesday in Calgary but return home on Thursday to take on the Swift Current Broncos at 7 p.m. They’ll then take on the Regina Pats on Saturday in Red Deer before the Christmas break.