Brian Liesse

Dorrin Luding leading Seattle to quality wins

A lot of goalies would struggle when placed into the situation that Seattle Thunderbirds goalie Dorrin Luding was placed in last week. After Matt Berlin was traded away and Liam Hughes was on the wrong end of a collision with Portland Winterhawks forward Skyler McKenzie, Luding was elevated to starter and had to make five straight starts.

The thing is, this is not the first time that Luding has placed into this type of situation. While with the Everett Silvertips at the start of the year, Luding was forced into eight straight starts on Everett’s Alberta road trip. That was not something he expected to start the year considering who else was listed as goalie on the team’s roster.

“The start was pretty tough. Just trying to get used to being the starter. It’s something I wasn’t thinking about at the start of the year because Carter Hart was supposed to be the guy. I was thrown into that situation and I just had to battle my way through and try to find a way to win games,” Luding said.

After Hart and 16-year-old phenom Dustin Wolf got healthy, Luding was the odd-man out, despite getting a shutout on the trip. Lucky for him, the next closest WHL team was in need of his services. The trade was a fortuitous one for the Prince George, B.C. native.

Luding has won twice in-a-row in the shootout (photo-Brian Liesse)

“It helps a lot. It’s only another 30 minutes or so away so it’s easy for my parents and my whole family to come down. It’s really nice.”

Luding got into just four games from when he was acquired on November 24th through January 13th.

That was when Hughes had to come out of a game in Portland. Hughes’ injury meant that Luding was the only healthy goalie on Seattle’s roster with WHL experience. His previous experience with suddenly being the main guy up in Everett helped him settle into his new role.

“Now that I’ve gotten used to being here in Seattle, I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable with the situation I’m in and that has helped me in playing these games.”

Luding has led Seattle to five straight wins in consecutive games. Two of those games were his first played against his hometown P.G. Cougars.

“It was pretty cool. I got to see a lot of my friends and got to see a lot of family as well. It was really nice to see them.”

After the trip to P.G., Luding earned wins over teams with three of the best six records in the entire WHL. The last two of those wins were earned in the shootout, with Luding facing down some of the most talented players in the league. He has tried to keep things simple for himself.

“Im trying to take the same approach every single day. Just getting out and battling in practice and battling during workouts and keeping my mental game up to par.”

Now that Hughes appears to be on the road to recovery, Luding knows that he will be sharing starts again. Luding and him have a good, competitive relationship.

“It’s a nice friendly battle. There’s a lot of good competition. We love it.”

Luding’s recent play has his head coach Matt O’Dette pleased.

“It’s huge for us. It’s nice to have that depth in goal. Every guy that has stepped in there has done a great job for us. Our goalie coach, Ian Gordon does a great job at keeping guys prepared. It’s a next man up mentality.”

Luding’s personality also plays a role, according to O’Dette.

“I think our team steps it up a little bit. It also helps that all of our goalies are good guys and great kids. When they get their opportunity, the guys want to play hard for them. In Luding’s case, he has been a great teammate and when he got the opportunity, guys want to see him do well and so play hard for him.”

Seattle’s recent run has them just six points back of the U.S. Division leading Everett Silvertips. Luding and the Thunderbirds have an important home-and-home series with the ‘Tips this Friday and Saturday. With how he has played recently against some of the other top teams, O’Dette and the T-birds have to feel confident with Luding between the pipes.