Pro Reads with Thomas Milic
How an Overlap (Panda) Helped Canada win World Junior Gold
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When Thomas Milic joined the InGoal Radio Podcast shortly after winning the World Junior Championships with Canada, one of the things discussed was his effective use of an Overlap save technique on sharp angle plays from above the goal line.
While there has been a lot of negative focus at the past two World Juniors on goalies getting beat short-side high while using a reverse-VH in similar situations, Milic was able to avoid the dreaded #RVHFail hashtag on social media by using a variety of post-integration techniques, including the Reverse. It felt worthy of further discussion, and Milic obliged with a video session over Zoom to review his Overlap use, which we eventually discovered was more of a purposely flattened-out version known as the Panda Post Lock he discovered at InGoal Premium.
Milic walked us through three clips, starting with this defensive zone faceoff against Sweden:
Watch Thomas Milic break down the full video for you
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- Milic breaks down his save on a defensive zone faceoff situation against Sweden at the World Juniors, where he faced two simultaneous threats: a shot down the wall and a backdoor pass.
- Milic uses the Panda Post Lock — a purposely flattened Overlap — rather than a square-to-the-shooter Overlap, because it covers both the shot from the dead angle and the backdoor option at the same time.
- Milic notes he has been beaten short-side in the Reverse-VH from dead angles and deliberately moved away from that technique in favor of Overlap-based post integration to eliminate that vulnerability.
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