By the time he decided to play hockey, Ritchie Virtanen had his position all figured out. He would be a goaltender, because all the other players were always having to come off the ice.

"My dad asked me, 'Do you want to be a player, or do you want to be a goalie?' " said Virtanen, the starting goaltender for the Victoria Grizzlies, recalling the day his dad took him to buy hockey gear. He was about six years old. "I wanted to be in goal. I never wanted to get off the ice." Virtanen will likely be between the pipes tonight, when the Grizzlies play host to the Alberni Valley Bulldogs, starting at 7:15 p.m. at Bear Mountain Arena. The 'Dogs (15-7-1-1) are 8-2 in their last 10 games, and have moved into second place, behind Surrey, in the B.C. Hockey League Coastal Conference standings. The Grizzlies are in sixth spot at 11-9-1-2.

"Alberni's been on fire. They've been winning a lot of games," Virtanen said. "We can't afford to lose those games when we can close the gap on them." To be the No. 1 guy on the ice in crucial games is what it's all about for Virtanen, but it almost didn't happen. A native of New Westminster, he came up through Langley minor hockey, as one of those players who never made a triple-A level team.

Eventually, the six-foot-one 200-pound netminder got picked up by the Campbell River Storm of the Vancouver Island Junior B League, and had a breakout season, becoming an all-star and the team's top rookie and MVP.

The Burnaby Express took notice, and signed him as a back-up last year, but their ongoing struggles were a tough introduction to Junior A. At the end of the season, the Express decided to bring in Merritt Centennials all-star Harrison May, who, Virtanen noted, hasn't had much luck, either.

Burnaby spent several months trying to trade Virtanen, but nobody was interested. Finally released by the Express in mid-August, he was facing his final year of eligibility in junior hockey, with no team and no prospects.

"I wasn't sure what I was going to do," he said. "I just started e-mailing. I was getting desperate for someone to give me a shot." The Grizzlies did just that, inviting Virtanen to camp, although goaltender coach Dean Whitney said it wasn't a good first impression.

"The first scrimmage didn't go very good," Whitney said. "He had to work hard to get us to notice him." Virtanen stepped it up, and his performance allowed the Grizzlies to trade returning goalie Alexander Peck to obtain defenceman Brad Pawlowski. The Grizzlies gambled and won, and now American colleges are taking notice of Virtanen.

"He's pretty big, and he covers the net pretty well," Whitney said. "He's rarely out of position, and he's really calm in the net. He never seems to get rattled." After camp, Virtanen saw his name plate in the dressing room, and knew he was home.

"I'm grateful," he said. "I wanted to show everyone who wouldn't take a chance on me they'd made a mistake.

"When you're the guy that gets to play a lot, you can't ask for more." sepp@tc.canwest.com