Goalie Blaine Deutscher never sees the puck coming; he hears it.

The slight, 28-year-old business student from Calgary has no functional eyesight, but that’s a requirement for goaltenders in the Canadian Blind Hockey Tournament. He was born with almost no vision due to retinopathy of prematurity, an eye disorder affecting premature infants that can cause lifelong blindness.

To know when to attempt a save, he listens to his defenders — and to the rattle of the oversized puck. In blind hockey, the puck is three times larger, a steel shell containing nine ball bearings.

“If they’re driving at goal and hit hard and heavy, you definitely hear it when it goes in,” he said.

Deutscher was a tad nervous before his debut on Friday, he said in the dressing room with his service dog Kacy, a German shepherd, by his side. This was his second tournament, but the first between the sticks.

His pre-game jitters seemed to melt away when he hit the ice at Ryerson University’s Mattamy Athletic Centre in Maple Leaf Gardens along with blind and partially sighted players from across Canada and the U.S.

The teams were locked at 2-2 by the end of the second, but they might have fallen behind if Deutscher hadn’t made a few saves — including one with his head.

“Thank God for my mask,” he chuckled to his teammates on the bench.

He hoped to make a good impression so he could move up to the more competitive division at next year’s tournament. His dream is to represent Canada in blind hockey at the Paralympics.

Courage Canada, the organizers of the competition, wants it to become a Paralympic sport by 2026.

That may be difficult, even if the sport has deep roots in Canada — especially Toronto, where the blind hockey team, the Ice Owls, was founded in 1972.

For a sport to join the winter Paralympic program, it has to have a recognized international governing body, abide by specific anti-doping rules and have worldwide reach, said Craig Spence director of media and communications at the International Paralympic Committee.

Mark Bentz, a defenceman in the competitive division of the blind hockey tournament who started to lose his sight at nine years old because of cone-rod dystrophy, said the sport warrants inclusion in the winter Paralympics.

When he was younger, he skied in the Paralympics, he said. “It was one of the best experiences of my life,” he told the Star. “Growing up with a disability, visual or whatever it may be, it ain’t easy. If you can connect with sport, it carries you through those tough times.”

Although Deutscher’s team lost 7-6, he appeared to be in bright spirits in the locker room after the game. “Did you miss me?” he asked Kacy, who was licking his face.

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“We gave it all we had,” he told the Star. “Heck, with a couple of seconds more, we could’ve tied it up. It didn’t happen, but everything’s good.”