This month's Q&A features Rookie Goaltender Michael Mole.

Mike took the time to speak with the Shoot-Out after the February Booster Club meeting and really opened up about his college career, reality show experience, and this first season with the "new" Phoenix Roadrunners.

Q. How did you first get into playing hockey?
A.To be entirely honest, I didn't really want to play hockey at first when my my parents tried to put me in power skating when I was 6 or 7. I grew up in Eastern Canada and there's a lot of old dark and dingy arenas and I was kind of scared of the Zamboni, believe it or not. It's kind of ironic now, because it's hard to keep me out of the rink, but at one time I was kind of afraid of the rink. I had a friend of mine, down the street, who's father played goalie in men's league pickup and he got into goaltending. I used to go over to their place and we used to play in the basement and play with all the hockey equipment. That was the real reason I became a goalie; I loved the equipment and that's why I wanted to play hockey and play goalie. I always thought that the pads and masks, and everything were really cool.

Q. What was your favorite team, growing up?
A. My favorite team, growing up, was always the Toronto Maple Leafs. My dad grew up being a die hard Toronto Maple Leafs fan and I sort of just got bred into being a leafs fan. Growing up, they always bought me the bed spread, and the wallpaper, and posters. Two weeks after I was born, my dad bought me a little tiny Maple Leafs jersey. It had "Mike #12" on the back, because I was born on October 12th. I still have it. It's tiny, but I've been a Leafs fan ever since.

Q. Where did you play juniors and what was the experience like?
A. I played four years of Junior Hockey in the Ontario Hockey League. Two and a half years for the Mississauga Ice Dogs and a year and a half for the Belleville Bulls. It was a great experience, I wouldn't change it for the world. I played in Mississauga as an expansion team, when they were first getting started. We definitely suffered some growing pains and we were actually the worst team in Canada for the first two years they had a franchise. I was facing fifty, sixty plus shots a night and basically losing every game. This is something that you really have to learn to adjust to mentally. I think that it made me a lot stronger mentally over the years; definitely a real character builder. One thing I told Ron [Filion] when he was recruiting me was that I had played on an expansion team before and you don't have to worry about me getting down and mentally frustrated. This is something I had been through before. Whether we struggle in the early goings or not, I'm going to be there game in and game out, so I'm not too worried about it taking it's toll on me.

Q. Along with Shawn Snider, you played on a championship team at St. Francis Xavier? How do you feel about your college career?
A. I had an exceptional college career and it was probably better than I could have ever expected. I went in there my first year and took over as the number one goalie right away and took the team right to the national championships. I was named to the Canadian all rookie team that year. I was named the most valuable player at the National championships, as well as goaltender of the tournament. As a first year athlete, it was a great accomplishment for me. Going back my second year, I was kind of hesitant to go back, because I didn't know if I was going to be able to top that kind of a year. I actually ended up going back and having an even better year on a personal level, than the year before. I was named to the first team AUS all-star, which was the first team all star for our league, and I was also named the first team CIS all-star for all of Canada. So, basically the top goalie in Canada at the university level. I think that's when I decided to get out and try my luck at pro; kind of strike while the iron is hot and a lot of things were going well for me at the time. With the whole Making The Cut experience and then getting a lot of personal recognition at the university level, I figured that if there was ever a time move on and to make a run at the pro level, now was probably the best time.

Q. Your roommate from the show, Brad Woods, has talked to us about his experience on "Making the Cut". What was the reality show experience like for you?
A. It was a great experience. I think it was kind of awkward at first. It was a reality TV show, and the cameras were rolling 24 hours a day, all week long. It was kind of tough. I had too get used to the cameras being around all the time. You're trying to carry on a normal conversation, and theres cameras in your face the whole time. You have to kind of be careful what you say, and that was one of the things my mom was worried about; she didn't want me to go on and make myself look bad. They were making a TV show, and obviously needed some characters. They had full reign to use any footage they wanted, to make you look any way they wanted.

Q. How do you think you and Brad Woods came off as characters?
A. I think we came off as good guys. I was pretty low-key there, as I was there for one reason, and that was to make it to the end. I didn't really get wrapped up in a lot of the stuff that went on inside the camp, getting caught up in some of the drama and stuff. I stuck to the task and, luckily, things worked out for me.

Q. Was there any attachment to an NHL team after the show?
A. I attended the Buffalo Sabers training camp right out of my last year of Juniors when I left Belleville, when I was 20 years old. It was a great opportunity, a great situation. I went there, I had a great training camp in Buffalo. Unfortunately, for a goalie it's really hard. A lot of teams already have goalies in their system.

(Note- a section of the recording of this interview was unintelligible. Mike shared some details regarding his time in the Ottawa training camp after his participation in Making the Cut.)

Q. You and Dean Tiltgen were the first signings for the new Roadrunners. How did you come to be involved with the team?
A. Ron got in touch with me through a coach that coached in my league last year with a university team in Moncton. I got a couple of phone calls from him. To be honest, I'd never heard of the Phoenix Roadrunners. They obviously didn't have a team at the time. I didn't know who the Roadrunners were, and I thought that maybe it was one of the lower ranked professional leagues. I didn't know what league it was, so I wasn't really too interested in calling him back. I was at home on reading week, just surfing around on the Internet. I was doing some searches for the Phoenix Roadrunners and pulled up a couple of the press releases. I read that the Phoenix Roadrunners were going to be a brand new expansion team in the ECHL this year. I looked at the press releases with America West Arena and Ron [Filion], and Claude  [Lemieux], and J.J. [Diagenault]. All the suddedn, I got really excited, and I said "I've got to call the guy back! This is a great opportunity!", so I called Ron back and we sort of hit it off right away. I went out to Edmonton last year to the Canadian Nationals to receive an award, and he flew out there to meet me. He and I and Dean went out to lunch together, and we sort of got the ball rolling right from there. I haven't looked back.

Q. Aside from Woods when you were doing "Making the Cut" and Snider with the X Men,have you played with any of the guys before?
A. I don't think that I've played with any of the other guys on the team right now, but obviously I've played against a lot of the guys growing up. Paul Ballantyne played in Sault Ste. Marie, and I played against him. Obviously Woods and Snider. Pecker was another guy I played against, who's obviously up in the American League right now. That's the great thing about hockey. You can be opponents with guys for many years, then, the next thing you know, you can end up on the same team. There's a lot of good camaraderie, a lot of good friendships formed. You've got guys getting traded and call-ups all the time, so you don't take it personally. I've had friends on the team this year get traded and stuff, and I still keep in touch with them on a regular basis.

Q. How do you like the style of play in the ECHL?
A. I think it's a great style of play. I don't think that it gets as much credit as it really deserves. I think, especially with the  Lockout last year in the NHL , that it's really stepped up it's level of play in the minor pro ranks. I was pleasantly surprised at the level of play when I got here. I don't think that A lot of people realize how good this league is. I got here, and I didn't know what to expect. I think that it's a really competitive level, and if you're trying to make it to the higher levels, it's a great stepping stone.

Q. How do you feel about the Roadrunners play, so far? As a team, we're a little disappointed with the beginning of the year.
A. I don't want to make excuses, because that's not what we do, but we did get hit with a lot of injuries early on. There's always stuff like that that you have to deal with in hockey. It's just about how you deal with it and how you overcome it. Right now, with the way things have been going lately, I think that team's done a great job of rebounding, really coming together at an important time of the season. There's definitely a lot of positives lately, and I think things are looking up and up. It should be an exciting last couple of months.

Q. How about the city?
A. I love Phoenix. The weather's great, the people are great. We've been really impressed with the fans and the Booster Club; the way the community's accepted us, as a whole. It's a great place to play, and over the years to come, it's going to be a lot better. It's a new team in a different building in a different area. It's up against some pretty tough competitors, as far as the sporting market. For the first year, considering the type of season we've been having, I think that everyone's really happy with the way things have gone as far as attendance, but there's room for improvement. We've really been accepted in the community. Everyone really loves it, all the guys, the management, and everything.

Q. Where do you see yourself in the next few years, as a player?
A. I'm going to give myself a few years to really try and make it. One thing I didn't mention before, but i did get called up to the American league right after my junior year, I dressed for a few games for the Lowell Loch Monsters. I played in one game, one period, and it was the second to last game of the season. It was a situation were most of their players were either up in Carolina, or down in Florida trying to make a run for it in the coast. It wasn't a very good team, and it was tough. I got a lot of shots in one period and I gave up four goals. Not a great outing, but definitely something I wast to work up to is getting back to the American Hockey League, at least, if not the NHL. I also attended the Hartford Wolf Pack training camp this year, after Ottawa's camp and had a really good camp there, as well. It's definitely a level I know I can play at, it's just getting a good opportunity and someone believing in me and giving me a chance.