Â鶹´«Ã½AV

A former Terrier was in Yorkton last week to help current Junior netminders Devin Peters and Warren Shymko sharpen their games on the eve of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoffs.Lyndon Sammartino, now a goaltending instructor in his native British Columbia said his visit came at the request of Terrier head coach Trent Cassan.

"Trent was talking to me at the beginning of the season," he said, adding initially the team wanted him here in October, "but it didn't really work out with my job."

So the visit was put off until now, which Sammartino admitted makes it a bit of an usual time to work with netminders.

"It's kind of a different time. Tea bms usually have me at the beginning of the season," he said.However, he added teams are increasingly looking for a little extra help heading to the playoffs.Sammartino said fate was against him on the trip too, at least in terms of truly working on ice with Peters.

"The day I got here in warm ups he pulled something He over-extended on a save It's probably just a little tweak of the leg," said Sammartino. The injury kept Peters in the stands for the Terriers' three games this week, and off skates for practice too.

Sammartino also arrived just in time to see Shymko struggle allowing five goals, a couple of them weaker efforts, in a 6-5 win over Battlefords at the Farrell Agencies Arena.

Sammartino said it will come down how Shymko can play over a series of games.

"We have to see how consistent he can be," he said.

In his first season with the Terriers Sammartino backed up Brett Bothwell, and he said playing a game every 10, is a different mindset than playing several games in-a-row.

In his second season as starter Sammartino said learning consistency was one of his biggest challenges. He said he'd play a string, but then about the fifth contest he'd have a soft one where he knew he should have played better.

In the case of Shymko, Sammartino said he is a big netminder, that in the Battlefords game "got too comfortable being in the blue paint (crease)," rather than coming out and using that size to block angles.

"There's time when guys just have a shot it's important for him to use that size to his advantage Big goaltenders can use their body to their advantage."

While saying Shymko has to balance his approach a bit, Sammartino said the netminder in his first full season as a Terrier "has lots of talent. He moves well. He moves with confidence."

As for Peters, he had struggled after Christmas.Sammartino said there is pressure coming back after the break and wanting to do well, then struggling, especially as a 20-year-old in search of a scholarship for next season.

"You want to just play game by game as much as you can," he said, adding he faced the same scenario in his final Junior season. " You want to focus on now but you get to worrying about where you're going to be next year, and what's going to happen."

As for Sammartino himself he and partner Brady Robinson have struck out on their own running goaltending clinics and schools. Robinson is goaltender coach with Chilliwack.

Sammartino said things have been busy enough that Dillan Crawford, Mark Crawford's son, has come on staff.

Sammartino said he works with netminders from age six through to those in the minor pros.

So far the partnership has focused on B.C., although Sammartino sees expanding that base.

"We're trying to plan one in California to see what response we get down there," he said, adding they may well look at a school in Yorkton in the future as well.