In early January, the Missouri Mavericks were tinkering with their roster and at the time had a surplus in net with Charlie Effinger, Gerry Festa and Levente Szuper (newly acquired in a trade from the Arizona Sundogs).
The Mavs were just a couple games over .500 overall and under .500 at home and with the excess group of goalies, they dealt Festa to the Fort Wayne Komets for defenseman Tristin Llewellyn.
The Ann Arbor, Michigan native had a solid career at where else, the University of Michigan, and then played a half of season in the ECHL with Elmira scoring a goal with five assists in 33 games.
This season, the 6-2,209-pound d-man had one assist in 11 games with the Komets before being dealt to the Mavericks where he fit in almost immediately.
In 33 games with Missouri, Llewellyn scored two goals and had eight assists and was a +5.
In the post-season, he has picked his game up even more averaging a point-a-game with a goal and three assists in four games and he is carrying a +3 plus/minus rating.
The Mavs will meet his old team in the Turner Conference Finals which will certainly get Llewellyn’s juices going as well as Festa who was a fan favorite in his couple seasons in Independence.
Game 1 of the series is set for Friday night in Fort Wayne.
