January 11, 2011
Dream Come True
Manhattanville assistant gets call to suit up as emergency backup with NHL's Coyotes
by Elliot Olshansky/
Tom Fenton stretches during pregame warmups with the Phoenix Coyotes. He wasn't paid for his one night in the NHL, but he did get to keep his jersey.
NHL dreams have been known to come true in some strange ways and unexpected places.
Rarely, however, do they come true in a barber’s chair.
As such, Tom Fenton could hardly have known when he sat down to get his hair cut on the afternoon of December 16 that he would suit up that night with the Phoenix Coyotes.
In the next 24 hours, however, the head of Game Operations and Community Relations at Manhattanville College would become a national story.
It all started when Coyotes goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov came down with the flu following a loss at New Jersey the night before. Phoenix immediately moved to call up Matt Climie from the San Antonio Rampage, but he would be unable to reach New York in time for the game against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
With NHL rules requiring a 24-hour waiver period before signing a pro, goaltending coach Sean Burke was out. However, Frank Effinger, the Coyotes’ head pro scout, had contacts in the area from his time as head coach at Iona, and put in a call to former Gaels goalie Steve Ketchibaw.
“Frank called me at 2:00,” said Ketichbaw, who runs a local youth hockey program, “and told me that his goaltender is injured, and he needed somebody from down here who can play. I told him I’ve got the guy for him. I called Tom to say, ‘You want to play hockey tonight?’”
Fenton, a graduate student in Manhattanville’s Sports Business Management program, initially thought Ketchibaw was talking about a local men’s league, but upon hearing that he was being offered a chance to suit up with the Coyotes, the former American International College netminder decided that his final exam scheduled for that evening could wait.
“I didn’t take him too seriously right off the bat,” Fenton said of Ketichbaw, “but eventually, he convinced me.”
Less than four hours after he got the call, Fenton was suiting up in the visitors’ locker room at MSG alongside the likes of Ed Jovanovski, Kyle Turris and Wojtek Wolski. However, he quickly learned that no rookie makes it into the NHL without at least a bit of hazing.
“One of them mentioned that I had to change my stick immediately,” Fenton said of his new teammates. “I have a yellow stick from my college days, and they said that wasn’t going to fly. There were a couple more jabs, too.”
Before too long, though, the jokes subsided, and when the teams skated out for warmups, there was Fenton, his yellow and black AIC pads clashing with the Coyotes’ red and white uniforms as he sampled the atmosphere at the World’s Most Famous Arena.
“It was great,” Fenton said. “This whole place is electric. I know they always say that cliché, but once you’re out there, it’s a totally different experience.”
Fenton wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with the circumstances – he’s acquainted with Capitals web-producer-turned-emergency backup Brett Leonhardt through a mutual friend – but still couldn’t quite believe what was happening.
“Never in my life did I think it was going to be my shoes,” Fenton said.
It was, however, and with colleagues and players from Manhattanville among the 18,000 in attendance, Fenton took his shots during pregame, then settled into his spot on the bench. Starting in place of Bryzgalov, Jason LaBarbera did provide a couple of scary moments in net – he misplayed the puck to allow a shorthanded goal late in the second period, and was slow to get up after contact in the third – but Fenton got to keep the best seat in the house for 65 minutes of hockey as the Coyotes fell, 4-3, in a shootout.
“They were just great,” Fenton said of the Coyotes, “keeping me relaxed and everything.”
With Matt Climie arriving from San Antonio in time for Saturday’s game against the Islanders, Fenton’s NHL career ended with the game, but his NHL adventure had another highlight or two left. The following morning, he called into ESPN’s Sportscenter to be interviewed by Linda Cohn (herself a former goaltender at SUNY Oswego), and that afternoon, he was back in Manhattan at the NHL Store, being interviewed alongside Coyotes tough guy Paul Bissonette by Don LaGreca and E.J. Hradek on NHL Live.
When the interviews were done, it was back to real life for Fenton, as he headed home to celebrate the holidays with family in Sarnia, Ontario. Because he signed an amateur tryout agreement with the Coyotes, Fenton was not paid for his one night in the NHL, save for the jersey he was allowed to keep. The memories however, were priceless, as he’ll be talking about the night he shared the ice with Shane Doan for years to come.
“Never in my life did I think it was going to be my shoes,” Fenton said.
