Bandits has been Michigan #1 Year Round Goalie School Since 1999 for several reasons; our dedicated staff, detailed instruction and the ability to push our students out of their comfort zone at all times.

As we always say, seeing is believing. Enjoy our videos and hope to see you at a BGS clinic/camp real soon!

Click here to read: http://magazine.ingoalmag.com/publication/?m=18095&l=1

FEATURES

- Detroit All Star Jimmy Howard explains how parenthood helped his mental game.

- Dallas Stars goalie Richard Bachman’s drills to improve vision and puck tracking.

- Canadiens star Carey Price’s secret stick tweaking tips for better puck handling.

INSTRUCTION

- Dallas Stars Goalie Coach Mike Valley on the importance of good visual habits are key.

- Rochester Americans Goalie Coach Bob Janosz simplifies the puck-playing process.

- Bandits Goalie School director Stan Matwijiw outlines positioning in one simple diagram.

- Former Senators goalie coach on staying down to simplify when attack moves behind net.

- Former Bruins goalie coach Brian Daccord offers 10 main keys to goaltending success.

- Maria Mountain of Revolution Conditioning helps prepare a proper summer training plan.

By: Brent McGrady

The New Jersey Devils have announced that they signed goaltender Scott Wedgewood to an entry-level contract worth $1.92 million NHL salary. The first two seasons of the deal have a salary of $615,000 each and the final year of the deal has a salary of $690,000.

Wedgewood was picked by the Devils in the 3rd round of the 2010 entry draft and went 84th overall. In 42 games this season with the Plymouth Whalers in the OHL, Wedgewood is 28-9-2-1 with a 2.97 goals-against average, .912 save percentage and three shutouts. Wedgewood ranks 14th in the OHL in GAA.

Now the question is where will Wedgewood play? It would be beneficial for him to start getting some playing time in Albany to gain some professional experience. With legend goaltender Martin Brodeur nearing retirement, the Devils have to start grooming a new face to take Brodeur’s place and Scott Wedgewood may be the answer.

After three days in town, Thatcher Demko was given the keys to the Omaha Lancers’ defense.

Pretty heady stuff for a kid who didn’t even have his own set of car keys.

Why no wheels? When Demko got to take his first spin in a Lancers sweater Oct. 29, he was 15. His 16th birthday wasn’t until Dec. 8.

That first game as Omaha’s starting goaltender was rough – a 5-2 loss to Youngstown. The Phantoms scored four goals in the first 13:13 of the second period after the Lancers had jumped to a 2-0 lead.

But then-coach Bliss Littler and his two assistants – Mike Aikens and Michael Zucker – weren’t about to revoke his privileges.

The two assistants – now in charge of the Lancers’ machine after Littler was fired at the end of November – had seen enough of Demko at camps and in action with the Los Angeles Kings Under-16 team to know better days were ahead.

“His size, his athleticism and the maturity level he shows, for him to be doing the things he’s doing in our league now, we’re wowed every day,” Aikens said. “He’s a special kid to be doing what he’s doing at his age.”

Demko has rewarded the faith all three showed in him. After a rough start in his second outing Nov. 6 against Chicago, things got better for the San Diego native after he stopped a penalty shot.

“Going into that game I was more nervous than I was going into that first game,” Demko said. “I let in two goals in the first 10 minutes, but on the penalty shot I made a save. That turned things around.”

Things have been going well for Demko as Alex Lyon’s backup. He has an 8-3 record in 13 games. Omaha’s 7-0 victory against Cedar Rapids Feb. 17 made Demko the youngest goalie since the USHL adopted tier-1 standards to earn a shutout.

After Saturday’s 5-4 win against Sioux Falls, Demko also is 2-0 this season in shootouts. In just more than 685 minutes of ice time, Demko has a 2.89 goals-against average and an .899 saves percentage.

Demko said Lyon has been a huge help in his development the past four months. He also believes Lyon could have been awarded an assist on the penalty shot stop against Chicago.

“There was a TV timeout and I saw him waiting there when I came to the bench,” Demko said. “He told me to forget about what just happened and to start out two feet farther from the goal than I had been.

“He told me it may not feel comfortable but to give it a try. I give him credit for turning that game around for me.”

Demko has grown accustomed to the backup role as he’s adjusted to his new team and city. He’s a student at Millard North and gets to school and practice by catching a ride most days from teammate Scott Dornbrock.

“Alex is still our starter but we have full confidence in Thatcher,” Aikens said. “He has a maturity level and calmness where he doesn’t get rattled. To be thrown in the fire with us like he was, things very easily could have gone poorly. He’s the type of person to be successful no matter the situation.”

He hadn’t been with the Kings for long when he got the call to join the Lancers, and he’s happy he did. The initial trepidations he had about coming to Omaha disappeared after he returned from California following the USHL’s Christmas break.

“I’m very comfortable here,” Demko said. “After the break is when I felt I was truly close with all of the guys. This is one of the closest teams I’ve ever been a part of. Having such a tight-knit group helps me want to come to the rink every day.”

Another thing the move to Omaha led to was a spot on the U.S. team for the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in January. Demko was summoned from the Lancers after one of the U.S. goalies was sidelined with mononucleosis.

Demko didn’t get his first start until the semifinals against Sweden. All he did was make 22 saves and stop two Swedish shootout shots to lead the U.S. to a 2-1 victory and a berth in the gold-medal game.

“The other goalie (Hunter Miska) did a great job getting us to the semifinals,” Demko said. “I was a little nervous but I was pumped up for it. Any time you get to represent your country like that, it’s pretty special.”

Now that he’s comfortable in Omaha and the nerves of being the newest – and youngest – guy on the team have passed, Demko said he’s hopeful the season lasts as long as possible.

“There’s always that expectation here in Omaha that we’re going to win,” Demko said.

“There’s a lot of heart and character in that locker room. If we put it all together, stay consistent and treat every team the same, we have a chance to go pretty far in the playoffs.”

Nikita Serebryakov knows at least one word in English.

“Stan,” the Russian netminder said with a beaming smile, his eyes widening with excitement as he heard translator Pavel Shtefan utter the name of Stan Matwijiw.

Last summer, Serebryakov spent two weeks attending Bandits Goalie School, the Novi, Mich.-based camp run by the Windsor-born Matwijiw.

Tuesday at the WFCU Centre, he displayed some of the skills he learned, and in the process, once more spoiled the form charts at the World Under-17 Challenge.

Serebryakov, who blocked 51 shots in a tournament-opening 3-2 win over the United States, wasn’t as busy, but was just as sharp, turning aside 23 pucks as Russia stunned favoured Ontario 4-3 in overtime to take one semifinal.

“Most of their shots were quite dangerous,” Serebryakov said of the previously-unbeaten Ontario squad. “They were a good team, and they were shooting a lot from the centre slot.

“It was a difficult game to win.”

That performance completed a Matwijiw sweep of the semifinals. Earlier in the day, surprise starter Thatcher Demko blocked both shots he faced in the shootout as the USA edged Sweden 2-1.

A long-time student of Matwijiw’s teachings, Demko sings the praises of the man who also serves as goalie coach for the OHL’s Plymouth Whalers.

“I love Stan,” Demko said. “He’s a great coach.

“I’ve been going to him for three years – this will be my fourth – and he’s definitely the reason I’m the goalie that I am.”

Demko was added to the U.S. roster from the USHL’s Omaha Lancers when Curtis Frye contracted mononucleosis.

“I just stepped in when they called me up,” Demko said.

Looking to give Hunter Miska a breather, U.S. coach Don Granato had no qualms about handing the keys to their future to Demko.

“We had that planned,” Granato said. “Hunter had played two, and we didn’t want him to play three and potentially four in a row.

“(Demko’s) a very capable, competitive guy, and he was hungry for the opportunity. We knew he’d be ready.”

Demko’s best save was his final one in the shootout, when Sweden’s Leon Bristedt curled in a 360-degree spin on the edge of the goal crease, seeking to bury a backhander.

“He was trying to jam it in there,” Demko said. “I got my glove on it.

“I had some snow in my face, so I was just trying to sprawl and keep the puck out.”

Demko feels the strength of Matwijiw’s method is that he doesn’t seek to create cookie-cutter goalies.

“It’s more of a different type of goalie camp,” Demko said. “It’s not like he’s forcing one way of goaltending on you. It’s kind of him just giving you pointers, and letting you be the goalie that you want to be.

“It’s good. He’s not too harsh. He’s more like a guide. He’s not forcing anything on you.”

Serebryakov is of the opinion that the tweaking his puckstopping got from Matwijiw has much to do with the success he’s enjoying this winter.

“He helped quite a bit in the summer,” Serebryakov said. “There were many different moments where he helped me to play better as a goalie.

“I’m very thankful that I came to his school.”

Tuesday, the U.S. and Russia were thankful as Matwijiw’s pupils created golden opportunities for both countries.

It may not be the gold-medal match-up that Windsor fans were anticipating, but it’s a gold-medal match-up that was backstopped by a Windsorite.

Read more: http://www.windsorstar.com/sports/Duff+Windsor+goalie+coach+helps+Russians+victory/5942202/story.html#ixzz1iYa8VemC

Below is some video from his recent summer training and some GREAT action pictures:

Action Pictures: