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Sniper Arthur Miller also enjoys pest's role

Power Dodge Estevan Bruins forward Arthur Miller might be public enemy number 1 in 11 of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League's buildings, but the agitator doesn't mind that role at all.
Miller
Arthur Miller looks to shoot or pass around Nipawin's Wayde Johannesson Saturday at the Centennial Arena against the Nipawin Hawks in Game 1 of the Canalta Cup final.

Power Dodge Estevan Bruins forward Arthur Miller might be public enemy number 1 in 11 of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League's buildings, but the agitator doesn't mind that role at all.

“I think everybody knows it,” said Miller after the Bruins split the first two games of the Canalta Cup final series in Nipawin against the Hawks.

“My teammates know it ... I love the physicality and I love getting into other peoples minds. You can see it out there. I'm never going to shy back from that. Everybody knows it by now. I love that type of hockey and it's how I am and how I've always been.”

Miller scores goals too, and lots of them. He scored 21 in 40 regular season games after a trade for his rights from the Manitoba Junior Hockey League's Steinbach Pistons and added seven goals and six assists in his first 11 playoff games.

He's also a pesky bug on the ice and a thorn in the side of the SJHL's best players, hitting hard and doing a lot of talking while doing so. He earns a lot of talk-back from the opposition, particularly the Hawks top stars.

“They can chirp me all they want,” Miller said. “It just builds me up and I step up when that happens. It doesn't mess with my head, it makes me play harder and want it more.”

Frequently in the first two games in Nipawin, the rink's loud horns blew hardest when he was the victim of a hit or a penalty.

Going forward, that's just the way he likes it.

“I just want to keep hockey and produce in offence,” Miller said. “It's not just chirping. I'm going to do it and they're going to do it to me. It's not going to change the way I play. My role is not going to switch. I'm going to hit everybody and go to the net and that's how it's going to be.”

Miller attributes the rise in scoring after two years with the Swift Current Broncos to his linemates, which have been Michael McChesney and Zach Goberis for a large part of the season.

“I can't thank my linemates (enough),” said Miller. “Without them I don't see putting up 20 goals without those guys... Those guys are giving me a chance to score every night and I give them all the credit.

He'll be glad to see the regulation-shaped Affinity Place again for Games 3 and 4 compared to the boxy Centennial Arena.

“This isn't even a hockey rink, I don't think. It's completely different playing in Affinity,” Miller said.