"I knew if we came back with Carey in the final, we'd be ok," said Davis, who didn't feature Price between the pipes in a round-robin loss to Kamloops the day prior to the final. "I think the shots were like 71-24 in their favor in that championship game, and we still managed to win. If there was ever a game where I saw him stand on his head, that was it. He stole us the provincials that night. It seemed like he flicked on a switch and you just knew he wasn't going to lose."
Fast forward 14 years, and things obviously haven't changed much. After claiming the Vezina Trophy in 2015 - along with the Hart Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award, and William M. Jennings Award - Price is once again a finalist for the prestigious goaltending award, going up against Sergei Bobrovsky and Braden Holtby this time around.
Price's success doesn't necessarily come as a surprise to Davis, who first caught sight of the future All-World netminder when he was playing Pee-Wee Rep hockey at a tournament in Abbotsford.
"He was always a big kid, even at that age. He was mature and poised. That's definitely what I remember about him. You could see that he wanted to go out and impress people and show them what he was capable of doing. That was my first instinct with him," mentioned Davis, before expanding upon the then-teenaged Price's impressive skill set.
"He was very sound technically. Jerry [Carey's father, a former goaltender himself] put some great structure in his goaltending," explained Davis. "He could also really move the puck. He worked hard at it. He could shoot it just as hard as some of the defensemen his age. If the other team dumped the puck in, we'd usually keep three forwards high so he could move the puck up three zones."
But, Davis adds, it was Price's attitude as a youngster that really separated him from the pack and ultimately propelled him to reach new heights down the road.
"The best thing about him is you wouldn't know if we were winning 10-0 or losing 10-0. He never got rattled. His demeanor didn't really change. He was always a really positive guy. Pointing fingers was never his thing, and I think that's why everybody loved to play with him," recalled Davis, who still sees the same qualities in Price today. "I see it with the Canadiens, and I saw it at the World Juniors and at the Olympics. I just sat back, watched him play and said, 'He's not going to let in a goal.' That self-confidence has always been there. He even had it at 13 years old."