Since joining Western men's ice hockey in 2020, Edvin Sanders has been a dedicated goalie, captain, teammate and friend, but with their season ending in February, he’s gearing up to say goodbye to Western.
This past season, Sanders had a .871 save percentage, allowing 5.36 goals a game and recording one shutout in 21 games.
Sanders will be graduating from Western in June and said this is the first time he hasn't been playing hockey in years.
He started playing hockey in the second grade as a skater.
The team he played on never had a permanent goalie, at that age the kids were still just learning. Sanders found himself in the net more times than not, and in his second year playing, he convinced his parents to let him stay in the net for every game.
Sanders said that in some ways, he regrets choosing to play goalie.
“Goalie is one of the most mentally challenging positions in sports,” Sanders said. “It's very unrewarding. Like if you have a bad game, it just sucks. Every mistake you make just sucks.”
In usual circumstances, a goalie is not the first pick to be a captain. When a goalie wears a C on the ice, the rules state that they can't do many of the tasks that a skater captain would be able to. But a captain's job is more than just dictating what happens on the ice.
“The boys just chose me to have a C because I was a leader in the locker room and I was someone they can all look up to,” he said.
Sanders' favorite memory of playing at Western was his first shutout, he said.
“I remember when he got his first shutout,” Jacob Robison, former Western ice hockey captain, said. “That's just exciting because it's like a young guy comes in when he's 18 and gets a big win.”
Robison and Sanders were good friends and teammates who lived together for a year.
“For a freshman coming into college and joining a team that has such a wide age range, it can be kind of intimidating,” Robison said. “But he handled it really well.”
On and off the ice, Sanders was always the one to bring the fun.
“He would be the person that would definitely start shenanigans, start something funny,” Western ice hockey coach Adam Segaar said. “A lot of times he did it too, just because it'd be stressful and he would do it to ease the tension.”
Sanders loved to make the best of unfortunate situations. When one of their games got canceled around Halloween, the team decided to have a costume practice scrimmage instead.
Segaar said that Sanders did not play goalie that game, he just goofed around on the ice and had fun with his teammates.
“The one thing I'm going to miss about Edvin is he was very stern. He worked hard,” Segaar said. “But he was the first person, if somebody needed the shirt off his back, he would do it.”
Meladie Young is in her second year at Western majoring in Visual Journalism. She is a sports and recreation reporter for The Front this quarter. In her free time you can find her with her camera or watching hockey. You can reach her at meladieyoung.thefront@gmail.com.
