Belfast Giants: Joe Cassetti looking to impress this weekend against the Dundee Stars
With his first competitive game in front of Belfast Giants’ fans at the SSE Arena fans this weekend against the Dundee Stars forward Joe Cassetti says that he is focusing on playing simple hockey.
Cassetti spent the 2023/24 season with National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) side, Western Michigan University. Joe is no stranger to NCAA ice hockey, also skating for Merrimack College and Miami University between 2019 and 2023.
He said: “Getting of to a scoring start in my first pro-hockey season is what I had been hoping for. It is always cool to score on your first game, so I am lucky to have been that fortunate. To be able to add the second was also awesome too.
“To be honest, I don’t necessarily go into games thinking about scoring, that sometimes doesn't help.
“I find that when I don’t think about it the chances fall my way, if I overthink then those chances aren’t always there. I try to focus on the controllable aspects of hockey and my game.
“If I focus on the basics of my game that always sees me through. Sometimes things just happen that way, sometimes they don’t.”
But Cassetti credits his teammates with creating opportunities for him to score.
He said: “It felt great to be able to contribute with the goals last weekend. Obviously I was fortunate that the guys that I am surrounded with were creating opportunities to score goals.
“When those opportunities I am going to make sure that I score. Everyone on the team can make plays.
“I was on the ice with other players who were good at finding me in a good position to score.”
Playing in the UK league has some differences to playing in North America, but then “hockey is hockey”.
He said: “It wasn’t too different from games back in North America. The one difference is that over here to play on an Olympic sized sheet, so that means that there is more time to spend with the puck.
“That means that the games goes by at a different pace than back in North America. But at the same time, hockey is hockey, ice is ice, at the end of the day, when you are out on the ice you don’t think about it that much. If you do think to much, you just have to go out there and play.”