He went from never having put on those 11-inch wide pads and goalie's mask at the National Hockey League level to backstopping the Carolina Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup title and being compared by some to his boyhood idol Martin Brodeur or perhaps a little like Patrick Roy.
Comparison aside, the story of 22-year-old rookie goaltender Cam Ward coming off the bench and leading the Carolina Hurricanes to the 2006 Stanley Cup title is more than just another Cinderella story.
"You think about ... no, you dream about ... someday standing there on the ice lifting the Stanley Cup in victory when you're growing up," Ward said a few days ago. "But the closer you get to making that a reality, it's funny the things that go through your head ..."
Like making saves off shots by his father and 5-year-old friends in the basement of their Sherwood Park, Alberta, home, while using a toy glove and homemade pads. Or remembering how he used to go to see the hometown Edmonton Oilers with his dad with his company tickets in Section 102 in the lower bowl at Rexall Place and focusing in on the acrobatic moves of Curtis Joseph or the standup style of Tommy Salo.
Larry Wigge has covered the NHL since 1969. The longtime NHL columnist for The Sporting News, Wigge is now an NHL.com columnist and a frequent contributor to the website.
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"The first Stanley Cup I remember was the one in 2000, when Jason Arnott scored in double overtime to lead the New Jersey Devils over Ed Belfour and the Dallas Stars," Ward said one day earlier in the Final. "No ... wait ... as a goalie how could I forget 1999, when Brett Hull was in the goal crease and scored the winning goal in the third overtime for Dallas against Dominik Hasek and the Buffalo Sabres."
Now, Ward can dream from a goaltender's perspective about how he helped carry the Carolina Hurricanes through the Edmonton Oilers in seven games, giving up just 16 goals in the 2006 Stanley Cup Final.
"It's funny, but I had a chance to touch the Stanley Cup last summer, when I was playing in the Sutter's golf tournament in Red Deer (Alberta)," Cam said, a little embarrassed to admit to a little superstition that touching the Cup might hurt your chances to win it. "Our team had a picture taken with the Stanley Cup, but everybody advised me not to touch it, that I would appreciate touching it more if I ever had a chance to win it myself."
So far the only superstitious chink in the armor of this otherwise unflappable youngster.
The Edmonton Oilers were on the verge of winning the first of their five Stanley Cups in seven years in 1984, when Ken and Laurel Ward said hello to their goaltending son. And you can pardon Cam if doesn't remember the glory days when Grant Fuhr and Bill Ranford were stopping shots and championships were the rite of spring in Edmonton.
But seeing a rookie goalie like Ward overcome the usual nerves and pressures that normally requires a veteran netminder's poise and guile to take a team all the way to a championship becomes more than just a sidelight to the story behind the success of the Hurricanes this season. Especially when you consider that Ward is only the fourth rookie goaltender to win a Stanley Cup, joining Frank McCool with Toronto in 1945, Ken Dryden with Montreal in 1971 and Patrick Roy, also with Montreal, in 1986.
"I wouldn't be here in the first place if it wasn't for Edmonton, my family and friends, the city and the wonderful hockey environment it provides," Ward said while on a wonderful roll that led to him going from a share of the goaltending duties to the No. 1 spot ahead of Martin Gerber in the Eastern Conference finals. "Everyone's calling me unflappable ... but, believe me, my head is spinning when I think about what we've done here since the playoffs began."
Ward is 22 going on 32 in composure.
"Maybe he doesn't know enough yet," Hurricanes captain Rod Brind'Amour said earlier in the Final. "Most of the goalies I've played with at this time of the year have been veteran guys or older guys, and I've never really understood that because I don't necessarily think it matters. It's who's hot. And he just got hot right now."
Head coach Peter Laviolette isn't surprised. Ward has done it all year long despite his lack of experience.
"You see him on the ice, you see him off it and his demeanor, he's just a real level-headed kid," Laviolette said. "I don't think a situation like this, being in the Stanley Cup Final, fazes him, because he's such a fierce competitor."
Ward, who was the Hurricanes' first-round pick, 25th overall, in 2002, is centered and cerebral in the net. He's not overly acrobatic, but he's a first-class thinker, and that can take a goalie a long way.
"I have a bit of a hybrid style," he said in a matter-of-fact tone. "I rely on a lot of positioning and rebound control. I'm not a flashy person or flashy goalie. I enjoy the mental side of being a goaltender, the pressure, being a go-to guy."
Ward has brought a sense of calm to the Hurricanes that belies Ward's rookie status and young age.
"Just look at the save he made late in the game on Shawn Horcoff," teammate Matt Cullen said of Carolina's 5-4, Game 1 victory. "He got bumped around behind the net and hurried to get in front. Most young goalies would have panicked. Not Cam. He acted like nothing happened, got square to the shooter and made the save. Sometimes I think he's got ice in his veins."
The exploits in this Cinderella story may have begun back in Sherwood Park, learning a few tricks of the trade from his dad, Ken, a regional sales manager for the building materials company named Lafarge, who was a recreational goaltender and claims he gave Cam his first goal pads. But this current chapter for Ward, in fact, came on opening night, when the Hurricanes No. 1 goalie Martin Gerber went out with a hip injury and Ward came on to make his first save in the NHL ... against Pittsburgh Penguins superstar Mario Lemieux.
"It was funny, because Eric Staal (who is just 21) came up to me early in the game and said, 'Do you realize your first save in the NHL was against Mario Lemieux?'" Ward said. "I told Eric, 'When you see that big No. 66 coming at you, you can't help but buckle at the knees a little.' "
The fuzzy-faced rookie went on to stop Lemieux, Sidney Crosby and Ziggy Palffy in a shootout to lead Carolina to a 3-2 victory over the Penguins.
But, after posting a 14-8 record and 3.68 goals-against average in the regular season, Ward opened up the playoffs as backup to Gerber once again. In fact, he played only once in the final two weeks of the season. Then, in Game 3 of the first round, he once again replaced Gerber and began writing an even bigger story when he led the Hurricanes to a 2-1 overtime victory in Montreal.
Ward went on to win his first five playoff starts, joining Tiny Thompson (Boston, 1928-29), Rogie Vachon (Montreal, 1966-67), Gary Inness (Pittsburgh, 1974-75), Pete Peeters (Philadelphia, 1979-80) and Mike Vernon (Calgary, 1985-86). And the 22-year-old rookie earned another notation in the record book by becoming the youngest goaltender to start a Stanley Cup Finals game since a 20-year-old named Patrick Roy faced rubber for the Montreal Canadiens in the 1986 final against Calgary.
Ward on his mindset:
"Everyone's calling me unflappable ... but, believe me, my head is spinning when I think about what we've done here since the playoffs began."
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"I just look back at the way I was raised," Cam said. "My dad and mom were both hard-working people and it just got past along to me. No matter how much success I have, they taught me it's important to stay on an even keel and stay humble. Their golden rule was: The more fun you're having, the better. And I've found, when you're having a great time, you're playing your best.
"You know something, I've always been described as a calm goalie. ... In fact, a few coaches I've had in the past asked if I had a pulse."
The 22-year-old made three great stops on Jarret Stoll, Ales Hemsky and Radek Dvorak when it was 3-3 in the third of Game 1 after the Hurricanes had roared back from 3-0 deficit. Then, he robbed Horcoff with two saves later -- one a diving stop that found his mitt as he spun through the crease on what looked like a sure goal with just over eight minutes to play, the second with four seconds left when he caught another chance by Horcoff while diving out toward the shooter. He faced 38 shots, 30 in the last 40 minutes.
"I got good wood on both, but he made great saves," Horcoff said, with a shrug. "What are you going to do? That's just the way it works. I wouldn't change a thing from what I did in those situations. Cam has long legs and really covers the bottom half of the net, so you try to get the puck up in those situations and I did.
"His first save was spectacular, the second one was a tough angle, I was pretty tight in. But that first one was an unbelievable save."
"The first one was ridiculously spectacular," added Carolina center Doug Weight. "He's in a zone. The whole bench was thinking that shot was going in.
"The kid is amazing. He's so laid-back that he told me a lot of coaches he's played for don't get him. It takes them a while to understand what he's all about. All I know is he's agile, he's confident and he is really big in the net. His calmness in goal has given us a confidence that has actually helped our momentum."
"He's got great legs, he butterflies very well," said Oilers center Jarret Stoll, who played against Ward, when Cam played for Red Deer in the Western Hockey League. "Everything down low he covers very well. He does a good job filling the net very effectively. ... Even up high there's not much room."
The 6-foot-1, 195-pound netminder has been wowing teammates and opponents alike for a lot of years. He won 30, 40 and 31 games for his Red Deer junior team. Then, during the lockout year last year, he won 27 games for Lowell of the American Hockey League. He was 38-26 during three playoff runs with Red Deer and helped Lowell advance to the second round of the AHL playoffs.
"There were a lot of NHL-caliber players playing in that league," said Ward, who gave up fewer than two goals a game, "so it made that step up less dramatic than it may have been in the past."
Hockey isn't always on Ward's mind. He's also a big movie fan.
"I'm a comedy kind of guy," Ward said. "I don't like any of those scary movies."
Think about that, a goalie who has had to face the likes of monster goal-scorers like Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and Co., afraid of scary things.
Ward said he grew up obsessively watching hockey on TV. He studied the moves of a lot of great goalies, past and present and settled in on the style of Martin Brodeur as his blueprint for success. It just so happened he had the pleasure of meeting and beating Brodeur in the second round of the playoffs -- shutting out the Devils for his first career playoff shutout.
But the youngster has found time for another big date in the very near future -- he will be married to Cody Campbell in Sherwood Park on July 22. No wedding planner help from Cam, however. He's been too busy ... with other things.
"Our scouts couldn't stop raving about Cam," Hurricanes General Manager Jim Rutherford said of the selection of Ward. "They said, 'We need to get this guy. This will be our goalie for a long, long time.' "
Pretty good start, eh?
Think about it, there's probably an aspiring young goaltender out there who watched what Cam Ward did in this year's playoffs and now wants to be just like this refreshing, young 22-year-old netminder. Just like Cam did when he was growing up.
