Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 19, 1995 TAG: 9502220023
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Since then, his visage has been scarred by two gruesome on-ice accidents, making his likeness a more likely candidate to appear on a can of Slice.
Fittingly, it seems Jestadt has had to survive one cut after another.
Roanoke's second-year left wing has gone from being a player who barely made the club to a player the club hardly can do without.
That was fairly obvious when Jestadt, the team's leading goal-scorer last season, missed six games after taking a stick to the face, the latest assault to his popular features. The Express struggled offensively and lost three games without Jestadt.
A year-and-a-half ago, though, it appeared the Express easily could do without Jestadt, who had a poor training camp as a rookie and barely made the club.
``It was really hard coming to the rink not knowing if I was going to play, sit out or if I was even going to be on the team anymore,'' said Jestadt, a second-year pro from Chicago. ``My confidence was pretty low.''
The left wing scored one point in his first 12 games last season, but wound up leading the team with 43 goals. He emerged as one of Roanoke's most popular players, as evidenced by the club's choice to use his face on a series of commemorative soda cans.
Although his total goals are down this season - he has 19 in 46 games - his 31 assists through Friday were 10 more than he had all last season and he is on pace to surpass last season's 64 points. He set a team record with five assists against Erie on Feb.11.
``As long as the puck gets in the net,'' he said, ``it doesn't matter who scored.''
His stats also have been affected by injury. Jestadt missed six games after Charlotte's Sergei Berdnikov inadvertently hit him in the face with a stick on Jan.17. The orbital bone around Jestadt's right eye was broken in three places and required surgery. A pair of metal plates were inserted to hold the bone together.
Jestadt now wears a face shield, which he said ``feels like a phone booth on my head.''
As bad as that injury was, the most frightening injury occurred last season at Toledo, when he was cut in the neck by an opposing player's skate after being knocked down in the crease. The wound missed his jugular vein by about an inch.
``I felt like I had been kicked,'' Jestadt said. ``I put my hand up to my neck and realized I was bleeding pretty bad. ... Dana [McGuane, the team trainer,] threw me a towel. I was real calm.
``When I was in the locker room, [Toledo's] doctor came in and said, `Holy [expletive]!' That's when I got nervous. I said, `Dana, what's going on?' Their surgeon came in and stitched me right up. When the doctor pulled the cut open, he said he could see my jugular vein.''
It took 25 stitches to close the wound. Jestadt played in Roanoke's next game at Columbus.
Jestadt always has bounced back, even though he almost gave up hockey a couple of times. He was given a mandatory year off from playing when he was redshirted as a 17-year-old freshman at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich. Twenty pounds overweight, Jestadt was told he needed to spend that first season working on conditioning and skills.
``I wasn't told I was going to be redshirted until about halfway through the season,'' Jestadt said. ``It was hard to swallow. I really thought about quitting hockey.''
He stuck it out and helped lead Ferris State to back-to-back NCAA semifinal appearances in 1992 and '93. After his college days, he once again considered giving up hockey, but Roanoke coach Frank Anzalone persuaded Jestadt to come to the Express' training camp.
``I guess I could have quit hockey at any time,'' Jestadt said. ``I'm glad I made the choice to come here and stick it out.''
by CNB