Tuesday, September 15, 2015

September brings start to Slubowski's Polish Pro Hockey adventure

Prince Rupert's Frank Slubowski has already put a couple of games under his belt in the Polish Hockey league, with the former PRMHA grad, by way of Western Michigan University, taking to the ice twice so far for the Orlik Opole squad.

The Prince Rupert goaltender is testing out the International game this year, having signed on with the Polish squad in the off season, heading to Europe as the Orlik Opole team was heading off to its pre season training sessions.

With league play now underway, his new team is already finding success, though it is still fairly early in the season with but three games played to this point of the schedule.

Slubowski was given the start in the opening game of the 2015-16 season, a tight contest which saw the Rupertite's new team go down to a 3-2 defeat. They followed that opening night with two more contests, the background to all three games to this point can be found below:

September 6 --  A 3-2 loss for Orlik as they dropped the decision to Unia Oswiecim, Frank Slubowski saw  59:40 of playing time, facing 40 shots on net, with 3 Goals Against recorded.

September 11--  A major thumping was administered by the Orlik team, gaining a 10-0 victory over  SMS Sosnowiec. Prince Rupert's Slubowski played 40 minutes of that game,  facing 13 shots and allowing no goals on the night.

September 13 -- Third game of the year provided a 5-3 victory for Orlik Opole,  however no game line information has been provided for that contest yet.

September 15 -- The Orlik team is back in action today taking on Naprzod.

Prince Rupert's
Frank Slubowski is
playing his hockey in
the Polish league this year
From the information available to this point, Slubowski has a 1.82 average, facing a total of 52 shots on 99 minutes of play.

Those stats place him among the top of the goaltenders at the early stage of the season.

You can keep track of the Polish League play from this schedule page from the Euro hockey website.

Goaltender stats for the league can be reviewed here.

North Coast hockey fans can follow Slubowski's path through the Polish league through the Orlik website, Twitter feed or Facebook page.

Though it probably helps if you a) reads and understands Polish, b) know someone who reads and understands Polish c) have plans to take a Polish languages course soon or d) dare to take your chances with Google translation, which if our most recent efforts is any indication, can provide for some fascinating interpretations.

We did notice from our research however that there is the occasional salute to Slubowski from the home country to be found through the social media options.

Something that North Coast fans may wish to add on to the twitter themes and Facebook time lines as the season moves ahead, giving the Orlik squad a fan base from the other side of the world.

Still, in the end the stats will really do all the talking and so far, so good for the former Prince Rupert resident who it appears is finding a bit of a groove with his pro experience.

As the Polish League season moves forward, we'll drop in on Prince Rupert's spot on the Orlik roster, providing updates as they are available, you can find those entries on our archive page dedicated to PRMHA grads who have moved on to other locations to pursue the sport.

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