QA with Scott Dickie

The Rangers' netminder Scott Dickie was front and centre as OHL's top-ranked

Kitchener defeated the Plymouth Whalers in seven games at the OHL Conference

Finals. Dickie, an overager, is in the process of completing his final OHL

season.

McKeens: Where did you play your minor hockey?

Scott Dickie: I played minor hockey in London then one year of junior B in London and one year of Junior b in Strathroy then I came to the OHL.

McKeens: Kitchener drafted you then?

Scott Dickie: I was drafted by the Rangers then and played all four years with Kitchener. I was an eighth round pick.

McKeens: Playing your whole junior career with one team could be

considered unusual these days.

Scott Dickie: Yeah, it's a pretty good feeling to stay in the same city. You get pretty comfortable and Kitchener's a great city to play in. So it's nice to

have played all four years here. I don't think too many goalies have been

privileged enough to play all four years in the same place so I consider myself pretty lucky to be able to call Kitchener my home for the past four seasons.

McKeens: How did you become a goalie after you started playing hockey?

Scott Dickie: I was a defenceman starting out but both my father and grandfather were goaltenders. One year our team only had one goalie and when he went away on a family vacation I volunteered to go into net. I just sort of fell in love

with it and I've been playing in goal ever since that year.

McKeens: How old were you?

Scott Dickie: I was 11. I had played three years as a defenceman.

McKeens: You must have kept some of your puckhandling skills because

you've picked up quite a few assists over the years (17 over the last three

seaons).

Scott Dickie: I love to play the puck. Every summer for the first couple of months I usually play with all my buddies, but I play forward. It helps your conditioning and its sort of fun to play a different position, then the last month I just play goal so I can get used to being back on the skates and everything.

McKeens: Ever since you've been in the league your wins have gone up and

your goals against have come down - that's great progress. What do you contribute that to, just experience in the league or something else?

Scott Dickie: I think some of it is experience I just feel more and more comfortable every year I play in the league and our team's gotten better and we have a

real good goaltending coach in Jim Brown here. He's really helped my development. Also my goaltending coach in the summer, Francois Laire, he's helped me out a lot. And I think just maturity too, growing up and getting used to all of the ins and outs of the arenas around the league helps out.

McKeens: Your playoff stats have been even better than the regular season

- do you change your style or make any adjustments at all once the playoffs start or do you see them as just an extension of the season?

Scott Dickie: I don't really make any adjustments. I just sort of looked at this year as basically these playoffs are my last opportunity to further my career in

hockey. If I can have a really good playoff and put up good numbers then hopefully I'll be able to get a pro contract. It's my last year in the league and the last year at getting this much exposure so it's pretty much do or die for me so I just sort of base this playoff performance on whether or not I'll have a career further down the road in hockey.

McKeens: So with not being drafted by an NHL club this is an extra

incentive for you then?

Scott Dickie: Yeah, because my first round was against Adam Munro (Sault St.Marie

Greyhounds goaltender) and he was a first round NHL pick (29th overall by Chicago in 2001) so I had a lot of motivation there and then the series against Guelph. Andrew Penner already has an NHL contract (Columbus) so I had some motivation to play against those guys because they both have NHL experience being drafted or under contract. I just want to go out there and hopefully outplay them just so I can maybe open some scouts eyes and they can see that I'm actually as good as them.