Game On Magazine 2017 Nov Game On low res | Page 14

PROFILE
H AY D E N
DOLA
Steelers goalie
comes into his own
BY JIM TIMLICK
Photos by James Carey Lauder
1 4 | G AM E ON | N OVEM BER 2017
I
n some ways, it seems
as though Hayden Dola
has been with the Selkirk
Steelers forever.
Dola joined the
Man itoba Junior Hockey
League team as a wide-eyed
rookie at the start of the
2014-15 campaign and has
established himself as one top
goaltenders in the MJHL over
the course of the past three
seasons.
Truth be told, Dola and the
Steelers have been linked for
most of his young life. The
20-year-old Winnipeg Beach
product started attending
Steelers games with his
parents, Harvey and Colleen,
when he was just four years
old and you would have been
hard-pressed to find a more
ardent supporter of the club.
So, when the former
Interlake Lightning netminder
was drafted by the Steelers in
the MJHL bantam draft a few
years ago it felt like a dream
come true.
“Yeah, I grew up watching
the Steelers,” he said, laughing.
“Me and my family went to
something like 27 of 30 home
games each year and even
some road games. The team
was something I idolized and I
hoped to one day be part of it.”
Dola is a huge part of
the team today. He is the
undisputed No. 1 puck-
stopper in Selkirk in his fourth
and final season of junior
eligibility and is coming off
a 2016-17 season in which
he posted a 29-15-5 record,
a 2.74 GAA and a .914 save
percentage. He was named the
Steelers’ co-MVP.
While he enjoyed a personal
breakout last season, the year
didn’t exactly start out the
way Dola had hoped. He was
part of a two-goalie rotation
that was supposed to split
the workload equally and it
wasn’t until he got on a hot
streak midway through last
November – a streak that
included a couple of shutouts