Always Taking Their Best Shots From Peewee Hockey To The Chiefs, Aren Miller Hasn’t Flinched From His Task

FROM SPORTS MENU C2 (Saturday, January 31, 1997): Replay The population of Estevan, Saskatchewan, is 10,240. An incorrect figure was reported in Wednesday’s editions.

Tending goal.

It might be the toughest mental challenge in sports.

The goaltender is starter, setup man and closer stuck with the same pervasive fact of life.

You’re only as good as your last stop.

On good nights the goaltender covers a multitude of sins. On bad nights his weaknesses and those of his team are exposed with every blip of the goal judge’s lamp.

Eighteen skaters can dominate and still find themselves at the mercy of who’s minding the net.

Aren Miller has handled the ups and downs of the job with an abiding patience that belies the fact that at one time he was a little terror.

Until sixth grade he was a runt forward trying to keep up with bigger and older kids in and around his hometown of Estevan, Saskatchewan, a community of about 350 people and two ice rinks, both crowded, (“It’s really a hockey town,” Miller explained).

So good a hockey town that Miller grew up side-by-side with Spokane Chiefs captain Trent Whitfield. Their families were best friends.

Brenden Morrow, now of the Portland Winter Hawks, lived 45 minutes away. Hugh Hamilton, who captained the Chiefs last year, was part of the scene.

Miller is no stranger to competition.

Not particularly fast for a little guy, he remembers getting burned as a squirt. Stuck in the corners he’d slam his stick upside some stud’s head.

“I had to even it up somehow,” said Miller, who gets the start tonight in the Arena when the Chiefs take on the Medicine Hat Tigers.

He spent a lot of time in the box.

“I was getting too many penalties so they put me in net,” Miller said.

Today, it’s hard to believe that 6-3, 210-pound Aren Miller was ever little, or a forward with a chip on his shoulder.

“My parents (Murray and Janice Miller) tell me I grew like a bad weed,” he said.

He’s grown in stature as well. He needs only seven wins to replace Scott Bailey as the club’s all-time leader in victories by a goaltender. Earlier in the season he smashed Bailey’s franchise record for games played.

“That’s a great reflection on the opportunity I’ve had here,” Miller said.

Now, at 19, he has more than the record book to compete with. David Haun, a 19-year-old goaltender picked up at last week’s trade deadline from the Brandon Wheat Kings, is the new kid on the block.

Chiefs coach Mike Babcock wasted no time charting a course for his goaltenders - Miller, Haun and Shaun Fleming, 17.

“It’s important to make sure Fleming is here because we need him in the future,” Babcock said. “When Milsy was 17 he didn’t get much opportunity to play but he learned a lot.

“Aren has grown and matured but he needs to be pushed. We’ve made it clear that David Haun is here to support and help Aren, yet it’s competitive and we expect him to battle. In the end, the best guy is going to play.”

Haun will get the start Saturday night here against Tri-City.

Miller, eager to get into professional hockey next season, says he isn’t surprised.

“We needed help,” he said. “It would have happened to me, if I were in my first year. Flemmer’s a good goalie, but it’s hard sometimes for a young guy to step in and play.”

Once the club’s academic player of the year, Miller was asked to grade himself on his season thus far.

“B-plus,” he said, after some thought. “I haven’t had a lot of nights off. When I’ve struggled I’ve been back, deep inside the paint, so part of my game is trying to stay outside the paint.

“I’m a big guy. If I can stay a couple of inches outside the crease it cuts down a lot of the net. When you’re inside the paint they can see a lot of net.”

Miller has developed mobility and a mindset. He’s still learning to turn size into an asset.

“Sometimes in my mind I’ll think as a bigger guy I’ll do better by standing up a little bit,” he said. “But it doesn’t work that way. You might not play as big as you can be but by staying low you’re more agile and a lot quicker.

“Against guys with speed it’s a lot harder to stay out. You see somebody flying down the wing, you kind of want to back in. I don’t really notice a good backhand pass, or a drop pass.

“You notice somebody who’s always in your face. If there’s a rush and I make a save, I look up to see who’s standing in front of me it seems like it’s usually one of two guys, Morrow or Mark Parrish (of Seattle) waiting to whack in a rebound.”

Interestingly, his best games have been on the road.

“At home we usually come out flying,” Miller said. “I get like four or five shots in the whole first period. You’re kind of sitting down there, getting cold. And if they get a good chance and score it seems to snowball from there sometimes.

“It’s great here with 10,455 people - that can be a lot of fun - but what other goalies see is a chance to shut them down.”

Miller came into the season revitalized by an encouraging stint at training camp with the Detroit Red Wings, who made him their second-round draft pick in ‘96.

“There was a lot of hoopla,” in the aftermath of the Wings’ Stanley Cup championship, Miller said.”We actually had to leave Detroit for a resort about 4 hours north. Every practice - they had a rink that held 3,000 - was sold out. “Our team won the training camp championship. I got to play one period. I let in one goal. Martin LaPointe scored on me. I had like 12 to 15 shots. It was the highlight of my camp.”

The Chiefs are a marked team, Miller said.

“Every team is gunning for us. No one remembers that Lethbridge won the WHL title last year. They know we’re going to the Memorial Cup this year. They come in thinking, ‘Let’s see how good these guys are.’ Teams usually have their their best games of the year against us.”

Miller handles the added pressure with an almost detached air. Good thing for the snipers of the Western Hockey League.

Once upon a time as a peewee, up against the wall, he wasn’t shy about introducing them to the hard side of his hockey stick.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos

MEMO: These 2 sidebars appeared with the story:

1. ON THE ICE Tonight: Medicine Hat at Spokane, 7:05.

2. BY THE NUMBERS Spokane Chiefs goalie records:

Wins in goal Scott Bailey 67 Aren Miller 61 Troy Gamble 53 David Lemanowicz 51

Games played Miller 123 Bailey 111 Lemanowicz 110 Gamble 105