Matt Hewitt will never forget hearing the words hundreds of thousands of Canadian kids yearn for. He was going to the NHL.

With that dream ticked off, the new Canberra Brave goaltender will take his place between the pipes against the Newcastle Northstars at the Hunter Ice Skating Stadium on Saturday.

It is his first taste of one of the Australian Ice Hockey League's most intense rivalries but a night at the heartbeat of the sport has Hewitt well placed to handle it.

Hewitt didn't have many chances to sleep in when he was a student athlete at the University of British Columbia, so with no classes on October19, 2016, he was making the most of it.

But he got a shock when he woke up to a barrage of messages saying the Vancouver Canucks were on the lookout for an emergency backup goaltender to face the St. Louis Blues in the NHL.

In a matter of moments he received a phone call from his coach and former Canucks defenseman Sven Butenschon telling him he was the man they wanted.

Hewitt grew up supporting the Canucks but a lifetime on the ice could never prepare him for the rush of nerves and excitment that washed over him when he walked into the dressing room.

There was a jersey waiting for him with his name on it, and he had the best seat in the house for an overtime win.

"That was a dream come true for myself. Growing up in Vancouver I was always a Canucks fan, and just being a Canadian kid, to play in the NHL was always the dream and something I wanted to be doing," Hewitt said.

"I’ll definitely remember that forever. It all happened so fast, I literally woke up at around 10am and I got a call from my coach saying ‘you might be dressing for the Canucks tonight’.

"I was like ‘whoa, whoa, what do you mean?’ I started getting friends and teammates saying ‘did you see the news about the Canucks goalie?’

"You just see the professionalism that you just don’t really see behind the scenes. The way the guys act as professionals, you just get another level of respect for them and you can take that away from the whole experience for myself, which was awesome."

Hewitt went from a night with the Canucks back to university a day later. Wind forward about 18 months and he "pretty much just finished exams and got on the plane" to Canberra.

An email to Brave coach Rob Starke ultimately landed 25-year-old Hewitt in the capital after "a few teams in the league" were too slow to respond and he hasn't looked back ahead of a clash with arch-rivals Newcastle.

"We’re still kind of short-staffed with players so these games really show our team’s true character when we come together," Hewitt said.

"If we pull off a win I think that’s going to show the strength of the team, and it could be a really good positive thing for ourselves."

AIHL

Saturday - Newcastle Northstars v Canberra Brave at Hunter Ice Skating Stadium, 5pm.