question about new york varsity mask cage

[shinderhizzle84]

hello! I am 16 years old and i play varsity hockey for my school, which is in the NYSPHSAA, which is the athletic organization for varsity sports in new york state. I don't know if i will ever find anybody who is an expert on ny state varsity ice hockey rules, but i figured i might at least give posting here a try. My birthday is coming up, and my father has promised me a new mask. I am considering a Hackva, but i personally don't like the looks of the HECC approved cage that is put on the mask.

Which is why i am asking whether or not it is legal to use a cat's-eye cage in my league. I have searched extensively on google and yahoo and the official nysphsaa site, but to no avail. They pretty much just say, "all players and goaltenders should be wearing all equipment necessary to play ice hockey. A chin strap check will be made by the referees on both team's goaltenders before the start of the game."

Lol. I had a run in with that before .

My second question, which will most definitely be a much easier question to answer is: the other goalie on my team has a vaughn mask, which has a "mini-cat's eye" cage, which is basically a hybrid between a HECC approved cage and a cat's eye cage. I personally really like the looks of that cage, so my second question is whether or not it is possible to put a mini-cat's eye cage on a hackva mask.

Any help i could get on this issue would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!!

P.S.: I wasn't sure whether or not i should have posted this in the equipment forum or this forum--to any mods out there, if this thread is in the wrong section, please just move it to the right one. Thanks!

[bc30]

If you play high school hockey in the US, you will need an HECC certified mask.

That means no pro-style cateye.

The cage on the Vaughn mask in question is certified, due to the additional bars that make the eye holes small enough to pass. However, you will not be able to transfer this type of cage to the Hackva, since masks are certified as a total package, and it probably won't fit anyway.

Most of those who have played with both types seem to prefer the sightlines in the grid style cage over the certified cateye, since the extra bars seem to defeat the purpose of why one would want the cateye cage.

When you say you don't like the "looks" of one but like the "looks" of the other, I assume you are talking about how you like the visual appeal of the outside of the mask. Get over it. It is much more important to be able to see clearly from the inside out, than to worry about how it "looks". Performance trumps style. You can't see the outside of the mask when it's on your head anyway.

So suck it up until you leave high school and become a beer-league hack like the rest of us. If you play in college, it will be four more years of the certified cage, so get used to it now.

[njt42]

Do not use a cat-eye for varsity hockey. You can't use a cat-eye anyway because your 16.

[Target1234]

Just email the good folks at hackva and ask them if they have developed their own hecc approved cat-eye styled cage. The last time I talked to Cindy it was something we talked about in passing. She had mentioned that they were looking into making one.

Plus I love my Hackva, best mask I have had to date for sure.

[#20]

you're not supposed to but most refs don't know the difference between cages anyways. If you wanna risk it you can, just know the refs in your area and if they are clueless

[shinderhizzle84]

alright thanks for the help, i guess you guys are right. It shouldn't matter about visual appearance, i guess come august ill just get the HECC hackva...i hear it's a sick mask.

I should've realized that the hybrid cage would offer less visibility--it looks kind of obvious, doesn't it? Nevertheless, i am too stupid to figure out the simplest things, yet i get over 2300 on my practice SAT's

Anyways thanks for the help again guys, i think ive made my decision, even though ive still got like, three entire months to decide haha.

[foodsample]

Yea my coach sold me his back-up masks for super cheap, and it is the Cert. Cat-eye... I was using a borrowed regular Hecc bar Cage, and can vouch for the fact that the small cat-eye defeats the whole purpose. Its like instead of having tons of holes to look through you only have two right infront of you, then the rest is full of overlapping bars. I am stuck with this mask because I just couldn't beat the price, but will be looking into a replacement cage as soon as possible.