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“The thing that stands out most about Beau is his size … he has length to his game, something you can’t teach,” said Bakersfield coach Jay Woodcroft. “In his first pro game (against Calgary prospects), what I saw was a guy who excels on face-offs. I wasn’t at all anxious sending him out. He was dominant on that and I moved him around as a chess-piece, putting him on the wing too, along the wall. He competed hard in his first pro action.”

He was jumped by Calgary rookie defenceman Montana Onyebuchi (Kamloops Blazers), but shrugged it off. Price of doing business.

“It’s the Battle of Alberta and obviously I got a big taste,” said Beau, who didn’t fight in college.

“I didn’t even have my gloves off and he Todd Bertuzzied me,” said Beau.

“I’m new to that at the pro level, but I had a fight in my first development camp (Chicago) when I was 18. I got one tilt with an older guy. That was my appetizer to last night’s go,” said Beau.

“He was coming off the rink and he got surprised … he didn’t have his gloves off. I wasn’t happy with the non-call but he came back and played after the (concussion) protocol. He showed a lot of character,” said Woodcroft.

Beau has his communications degree in his back pocket while he tries pro hockey.

“I’m really interested in sports and the media and if hockey doesn’t turn out I’d like to be a general manager down the road,” he said. “We did a lot of media classes and technology management in school but I took a lot of business classes too (his minor).”

His older brothers Peter and Troy are into money matters.

“Don’t ask me exactly what they do, though. They’re on their laptops doing work,” laughed Beau.

jmatheson@postmedia.com