WINDSOR, ONT. - The kid could do only so much.
Goaltender Carl Stankowski — all 5-feet-9 and 159 pounds of him — increasingly became a great story through the Western Hockey League playoffs, helping lead the Seattle Thunderbirds to a championship title after appearing in just seven regular-season games during his rookie season.
The 17-year-old nearly continued that remarkable run in his club’s first game of the 2017 Memorial Cup.
The Thunderbirds lost 4-2 against the Erie Otters at the WFCU Centre as Erie got a goal from captain Dylan Strome early in the third to break a 2-2 tie, but the game would not have been close without the terrific netminding by Stankowski, who stopped all 12 shots he saw in the first period.