In his crucial fourth season in the AHL, Tucson Roadrunner goalie Ivan Prosvetov is off to a hot start after connecting with a “future school of goaltending” coach.
Prosvetov, who is 2-0-0, has helped Tucson to a 3-1-0-0 start to the season.
Coyotes goaltender development coach Charlie McTavish said Prosvetov has been excellent this year.
“He’s got off to a fantastic start,” McTavish said. “He came to camp really focused, we worked on his game a lot over the summer and it’s shown so far.”
Tucson returns to action on Friday at the San Jose Barracuda (4-1-0-0).
Prosvetov’s 1.95 goals against average is 10th in the league. He’s 12th in save percentage (0.933).
“He’s made some real massive improvements this summer and it shows,” said Roadrunners head coach Steve Potvin. “He’s just gotta stay with it, stay composed and be ready for his next challenge.”
Prosvetov first joined the Roadrunners in 2019-20 and has played six games for the Coyotes last season, earning a goals against average of 4.15 in 2020-21 in three games and 4.22 last season.
“Every year’s important, right, but I try not to think about it, how important it is,” Prosvetov said. “I actually never do, I just try to focus on my game, shot by shot, kind of moment by the moment and not too far ahead I would say.”
Prosvetov, 23, is a 6-foot-5 Moscow native.
“It’s a huge year, he’s in his fourth year and obviously he wants to make that jump so you see that his work ethic this year is a level higher than maybe previously and everything he’s doing is trying to make it a little bit better than it was before,” McTavish said. “It’s evident and so far it’s paying off.”
McTavish joined the Coyotes organization last September after stints with the Ottawa 67’s in the OHL and Hockey Canada.
“Charlie had a really big impact on me over the course of the last year and a half,” Prosvetov said. “He was really able to tweak my game in the right way I think and my mindset, how I’m dealing with pressure in the games and stuff like that.”
McTavish said they really clicked around Christmas after he earned the Russian’s trust.
“I think the future school of the goaltending is what Charlie is teaching us,” Prosvetov said. “I really appreciate having a coach like that and sometimes you don’t get lucky like I did.”
