This season I will be interviewing Jeremy Smith of the OHL’s Plymouth Whalers on everything dealing with being a goalie on the OHL level. For the start of this year’s column, I talked about his experience while playing in the Under-18 Memorial of Ivan Hlinka and the beginning of the season itself. But first, here is a little background on Jeremy.

Smith started playing hockey at a young age and worked his way through the levels, playing on many prestigious hockey organizations including Victory Honda and Belle Tire. Jeremy started playing hockey because his older brother David played (his younger brother now plays as well). Jeremy was then drafted by the Ontario Hockey League’s Plymouth Whalers in the fourth round, 64th overall in the 2005 entry draft.

After getting minimal ice-time during his rookie season, playing behind Justin Peters (now playing for the American Hockey League’s Albany River Rats in the Carolina Hurricanes organization) and Justin Garay (traded as the season began to the Erie Otters), Jeremy now splits time with import draftee Michal Neuvirth (selected by the Whalers 27th overall in the Canadian Hockey League import draft and chosen in the second round by the Washington Capitals in this past NHL draft) in net.

But before the 2006-07 season even started, Smith got the honor of being the starting goaltender of the USA Under-18 Select Team in the Under-18 Memorial of Ivan Hlinka (Junior World Cup). To make the team, he attended a selects tryout held in July at St. Cloud State. The players were randomly selected onto teams and then the teams played in a round robin. Smith posted the best numbers out of the goaltenders invited and was rightfully given a opportunity to travel to the Czech Republic in hope of a Gold Medal.

Jeremy commented on the select tryouts, “Well I think every goalie entering the Minnesota camp had an equal chance of making it. I just thought that if I had a solid camp it would help my chances of making it. At the camp you are put into teams by random, and during the first few days you practice and do some team building activities, but when the games start, it’s all business.”

After Smith received the phone call from the coaches, about a week after the camp ended, he was off to the Czech Republic. The team started off its trip by playing an exhibition game against Slovakia, which they won 2-0. On August 8th, the team played their first game and won 3-2 with Smith stopping 24 of the 26 shots fired at him. The next two games saw huge success for both the team and Jeremy. The U.S. downed Russia 4-2 and the Czech Republic 4-3 in overtime, cementing their place in the gold medal game. Smith was named U.S. player of the game in both games, stopping a combined 77 of 82 shots.

With the three victories cashed in for a ticket to the championship game, the team then went up against a very talented Canadian team. The U.S. could not handle their overpowering opponent and got shutout 3-0. Smith stopped 27-30 shots; the loss earned them the silver medal.

Jeremy said on the game, “It was a fun game to play in, but was a very hard game to lose. The Canadian team played great, but it was a tough game and we fought hard.” Smith’s final stats for the tournament were 3-1 with a 2.5 GAA and a .928 save percentage.

Next in line for Smith was the start of the Whaler’s season. At the beginning of the season, there was a serious log jam at the goaltending position, with four on the roster. Second year goaltender Smith had to compete with third year goalie Justin Garay, and first year Kyle Jendra and Michal Neuvirth for a spot on the team. Soon enough the situation was fixed, Jendra was sent to Traverse City and Garay was traded to Erie. That left Smith and Neuvirth to split the time in net.

So far Jeremy has enjoyed a successful season. He currently has 6-5 record including back-to-back shutouts. He also ranks in the top five in the league in both goals-against-average (2.86) and save percentage (.915). Jeremy also has a league-leading three shutouts and had a shutout streak of over 150 minutes.

His success has landed him some very high marks when it comes to scouting. He is the number one available OHL goaltender coming up in the 2007 draft and sits in the top five of goaltenders available in the world according to ISS scouting rankings.