“It’s the perfect place for my development. Noah Patenaude didn’t hesitate long before joining HC Ajoie. The young Neuchâtel goalkeeper has been skating with the National League red lantern for three weeks. He started the season in Ticino in the ranks of Ambri and evolved in the Swiss League with the Ticino Rockets. From the height of his 20 years, he now wants to find a place in the elite of Swiss hockey. “It’s up to me to prove that I have the level to play here”, he says as the HCA takes the road to Zug this Tuesday (live on RFJ from 7:30 p.m.). Noah Patenaude knows it’s a long way to settle in front of a National League net, he who has not yet known this honor. “I am 20 years old, I am still young. You have to start as 3rd or 2nd goalkeeper and learn from others, ”says the goalkeeper who passed through Neuchâtel, Yverdon, Bienne and Canada.
However, patience does not mean lack of ambition for the junior international. If he has not had a discussion on the role that the sporting director of the HCA Julien Vauclair wants to entrust to him next season, Noah Patenaude wants “to prove that I can be at least 2nd goalkeeper and be part of this team”. The Neuchâtelois describes himself as “quite calm and explosive in goal”, a game “a bit similar” to that of his new teammate Tim Wolf. To steal the place of the Zurich player in the Ajoulote cage, Noah Patenaude knows that he must upgrade from the National League. “The game is faster, you have to get used to this speed,” he says. Nothing to stress him out about. “It’s going to go little by little,” he says full of wisdom. /msc