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Friday the 13th fitting for goalies

Friday the 13th is a goalie’s holiday. After all, Jason Voorhees had to be a goalie; he had the mask.

Air Force junior goalie Andrew Volkening has the mask, too, though he said it’s in his basement in Genoa, Ill. He never has worn it on the ice. But, as a kid in the western suburbs of Chicago, he did wear it while playing street hockey.

Game on. And where this story jumps from “Wayne’s World” to “Friday the 13th”?

“Me and my brother painted blood on it, dripping all over the place,” Volkening said. “We had fun with it. We were definitely proud of it.”

Goalies, of course, are notoriously superstitious creatures. And Volkening says, “I’m ridiculous, actually. I’m as bad as they come.”

How so? “The way I tape my stick, the way I put on my equipment, you’ve got to drink out of a certain water bottle on game days. …”

But back to the mask. Falcons freshman goalie Stephen Caple said his father wore a mask similar to the Voorhees mask when he was a goalie in high school.

“It was pretty similar to Jason’s,” he said. “It scared a few trick-or-treaters.”

He did have one other observation.

“It’s pretty hard to see out of,” he said. “I don’t know how (goalies then) did that. Those crazy masks, those little holes.”

He’s got a new blade

Air Force senior defenseman Greg Flynn is messing with the day’s mojo, mostly by necessity. The night of Friday the 13th at Bentley, he plans to break out a new stick for the first time in more than two years.

He has used a Bauer 190 stick. But the stick isn’t made anymore and he is down to his last one. And, given how players are particular with their equipment, he’s stressing.

At least until the Warrior dolomyte spyne proves itself.

“I’ve used it in practice, but never played with it in a game,” he said. “It shouldn’t be different, but you just don’t know.”

The Bauer 190 has been good to him. He scored 14 points as a sophomore, 31 as a junior and is second nationally in defenseman scoring with 29 points this year. And he has scored a goal with that last stick.

“I’ll have to break it out if I go into a slump with these guys,” he said. “I don’t anticipate that happening, but you just don’t know.”

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