Shaun wants a big farewell

Apr 5 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

His 20-year career should have ended representing Great Britain at a World Championships. But, Shaun Johnson tells Stuart Rayner, winning the play-offs with his local club will not be a bad alternative

IT perhaps should have come at this month’s World Championships in Austria, but there is something fitting about the fact Shaun Johnson’s last competitive ice hockey game will be in the black and yellow of his home club. Having said farewell to Newcastle Arena in near-perfect fashion, Johnson hopes he can bow out as a play-off winner.

Johnson’s 28th-minute goal in his home rink last week set the Vipers on their way to the Elite League’s play-off finals weekend (albeit only after a penalty shots competition). The strike, which deflected off a skate and over the shoulder of Belfast Giants netminder Stevie Lyle, was his 64th in over 400 games for five different incarnations of the North East franchise.

Now the 35-year-old aims to end a 20-year career which has seen him represent Durham Wasps and Newcastle Warriors, Cobras and Riverkings in style. Today, at Nottingham’s National Ice Centre, double-winners Coventry Blaze stand between them and a second final in three years, with Cardiff Devils or Sheffield Steelers facing the winners tomorrow.

“It’s always been in my mind since I announced my retirement to get to the play-offs weekend and come away with a win,” admits Durham-born Johnson. “To get there has been a big achievement, but now we want to make sure we win it. There’s no other thought.

“I couldn’t really have asked for much more from my last home game, except maybe to have won it outright. I got a great send-off and I was quite emotional at the end. But it comes to the time where you have to call it a day and I just felt now was the right time.”

The final chapter could have been somewhat different after Paul Thompson, who doubles as Coventry’s coach, selected Johnson in a provisional 34-man Great Britain squad for the World Championships. Widely regarded as the country’s best defensive centre, Johnson would have been a cert for Innsbruck had he not opted out of the final squad after placing practical considerations above romance.

“It just wasn’t feasible,” said Johnson. “My furniture business I run with my brothers has got a base in Durham and we’ve expanded into a 10,000 square foot warehouse. We’re moving in the summer and it’s just not possible for me to be away for two weeks. Tommo and Willy (Rob Wilson, Vipers head coach and Thompson’s GB assistant) asked if there was anything they could do to make it a shorter trip but it just wasn’t possible. With me retiring, the business has to come first.

“I was absolutely gutted. Still, if we can win on Sunday that wouldn’t be a bad alternative.”

It wasn’t the first time Johnson disappointed Thompson. “Coventry spoke to me last summer and said they were interested,” says a player who spent the first four years of the decade at Coventry. “I couldn’t handle the travelling and I had an enjoyable season at Newcastle so I was always going to play there if anywhere. I was seriously thinking about retirement but Willy and Fern (co-owner Paul Ferone) persuaded me to have one last season and I’m glad they did.”

Johnson is one of a number of Vipers players who won the 2006 play-offs. It justified their belief that the more cagey one-off games bring the best out of the team. “Sometimes when the pressure is on you put more pressure on yourself and do things you shouldn’t do,” Johnson reflects.

“We’ve got quite an old team, which is good because they know what’s needed to win. Everyone has to be running at 150%, I don’t think it even matters how skilful you are once it gets to the play-offs.”

Tomorrow’s final faces-off at 3pm.