LEWISTON – He sat slumped over at his locker stall, his head between the giant pads still weighing down each leg. Steam rose from Slovakian netminder Jaroslav Halak’s shoulders, head and back, quickly dissipating as it hit the muggy, stale locker room air.

Five feet away, at his own locker stall, countryman Michal Korenko was still fully dressed, save for the helmet that sat venting its own steam on the floor at his skates, and the gloves placed neatly in the cubby above his head.

Korenko and Halak, the Lewiston Maineiacs’ two most-traveled players, immediately start bantering, ostensibly talking about the practice that just finished, or perhaps the meal they will scrounge up in a half hour.

Three months ago, a question in English would have sailed over their heads faster than a Chad Denny slapshot. This time, both players swiveled around, Korenko throwing his long blonde locks with the roots just starting to show over his shoulder and Halak ruffling his sweat-soaked hair with his left hand.

“I speak better now,” Halak said as he grinned and turned back to Korenko. “And he, he can speak a little now, too. We are learning every day.”

Such can be said of the pair’s hockey playing as well.

A team starts with…

While most people will agree that a good goaltender can win games and take a team to the playoffs, good goaltenders will often tell you otherwise.

“It takes the whole team,” said Halak. “I have to be good, so do the defensemen and the forwards. Everyone has to do their part to win.”

His coach, Clem Jodoin agreed.

“The whole team is as important as the goaltending,” said Jodoin. “The goalie is as good as the players in front of him.”

That said, Jodoin also realizes how special Halak is.

“I saw him play in Slovakia three years ago,” said Jodoin. “We was quick, athletic, a very good goaltender.”

At the time, Jodoin was working for a scout in Europe, but the impression Halak left on his mind was deep. After talking to the Maineiacs staff when he signed on as general manager and coach, Jodoin knew the time to bring Halak over to the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League was right.

Now, it’s Halak’s biggest challenge to adjust to the speed and size of the league.

“In Europe, the rinks are bigger, the ice, there is more room,” said Halak. “Here it is faster and the shots, there are more of them and from close, too.”

After raking as high as third overall in the league through 12 games, Halak’s statistics have slipped just as fast as the team’s record in front of him.

“If you are facing 15 or 16 A’ chances against in a night, that’s a lot of chances,” said Jodoin. “He is still a good goaltender. One game or two games does not make a season. This is a long season.”

Defending a countryman

One of the defensemen that helps to protect Halak is Korenko, who at 17 is spending his first time away from home as a hockey player. In September, trying to get Korenko to speak was a difficult chore – he had never uttered a word of English.

Now, he gaining comfort in speaking, and on the ice.

“The game, it is faster here,” said Korenko. “There is more hitting, too. I like that part.”

Korenko has also learned fast that many of the problems the team is facing start inside of each player. When asked about the team’s current six-game winless streak, Korenko was self-critical.

“The last five games, they have not been good for me,” said Korenko. “I need more effort, and so does the whole team. Everybody needs to to play good, especially against the good teams.”

“The fact that he is learning English and starting to learn the systems, that is helping him,” said Jodoin of Korenko. “He has hockey sense and he has improved his skating and his shot, but he still needs to work on those. Right now, though, like any other player on the team, it is just through the first part of the season. At the end of the year, we look back and see how he did, how they all did.”

As the team and the players go forward, Halak and Korenko will continue to learn English, and some French from the French-speaking players in the locker room, but the most important language they will learn this season will not come from the mouth of any one particular player or coach. It will be on the ice.

The language?

Hockey.