The game kept pushing him toward the exit, and sometimes it shoved.

Justin Johnson kept pivoting, avoiding the hit, as it were, and plugging along. He kept winning incremental battles, first to gain a foothold in hockey, then using it as a springboard to improbable success.

Coming out of junior hockey, recruiters did not besiege Johnson. He began his college career as a walk-on with his hometown team, UAA, and when his four seasons there were done, the pros clubs did not line up on his doorstep, checkbooks open.

As a rookie, Johnson twice was waived by his hometown Alaska Aces. His ECHL journey took him to Idaho, then to Utah and Cincinnati. Four years into his pro career, he still was parked in the ECHL, far down hockey’s ladder, even if it was with the Aces, the club he adored.

The game was telling him his dream was dead and maybe it was time to move along to the layman’s world, where the guys he grew up playing with worked regular jobs, and mortgages and families and security.

“I’ve been given reasons to quit my whole career,” Johnson recalled Monday.

If the hockey gods didn’t believe in the out-going guy people in Anchorage hockey circles call J.J. or The Governor, he believed in himself. He’s a fighter, on two fronts — by trade, an enforcer; by nature, relentless, resilient and a study in perseverance.

Johnson’s odds of even ascending to the American Hockey League, one step above the ECHL and one below the NHL, were as long as late-evening shadows. Yet he made the most of a 2010 tryout with the American Hockey League’s Manchester Monarchs and plied that into three seasons with that club. This season, he’s playing with the AHL’s Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the affiliate of the NHL’s New York Islanders, after playing three exhibition games, and scoring a goal, for the Islanders in the pre-season.

To this point, Johnson believes everything he has earned in hockey has been both a blessing and a bonus.

Still, there have been times, particularly since he passed 30, when he wondered whether he was holding on to the game too long. He says he wants to be a husband and a father, and find out what there is for him professionally after his playing days.

“Am I falling behind?” he asks himself. “Am I taking this too far?”

Funny thing, though — at 32, he keeps adding chapters to his unlikely tale.

Monday was an off day for the Tigers, so when Johnson took a “random” call from Bridgeport Sound assistant coach Doug Holewa telling him he needed to come to the rink pronto, his heart sank. Was this the end?

Holewa halted those dark thoughts with quick words Johnson never thought he would hear: “I’ve got an NHL contract here for you to sign.”

The moment was surreal and confusing. Johnson wondered whether he heard Holewa correctly. Then he got his butt to the rink in a blink.

The NHL deal — it’s called a two-way deal, meaning one salary in the NHL, a lower one in the AHL– is for the rest of this season, and Johnson remains with Bridgeport Sound. Johnson said his new contract pays the NHL minimum, a pro-rated $550,000 this season, but of course he must play in the NHL to get that salary. His AHL deal remains the same, $85,000 this season. But his new deal, Johnson said, came with an $8,500 bonus.

As Johnson signed the contract, Tigers assistant coach Eric Boguniecki, the former Aces player/assistant, took his picture.

As much as anything, Johnson said, he appreciates the gesture from the Islanders and general manager Garth Snow, who Johnson said called later to offer congratulations.

“It’s humbling to know you’ve been acknowledged by a team at that level and received something we’ve all strived for since we were kids,” Johnson said.

For Johnson, Monday made good on all the years, all the grinding, all the fights, all those moments of self-doubt.

“Would validation be a good word?” he asked. “Or vindication? I’ve sacrificed a lot.”

Still, Johnson recognizes it’s not all about him.

When he was a sophomore at UAA, the Seawolves shocked Wisconsin by winning a first-round playoff series there to propel UAA to its first Western Collegiate Hockey Association Final Five. When the Seawolves jumped over the boards to celebrate, it was Johnson who hunted down the game puck and afterward gave it to his head coach, John Hill, a former UAA captain and another Anchorage guy.

Monday, Johnson recalled the litany of people who have guided his journey.

NHLers from Anchorage like Scott Gomez, Matt Carle, Brandon Dubinsky, Joey Crabb, Nate Thompson and Tim Wallace “give me respect and love,” and support, Johnson said. He cited Louis Mass, the Aces assistant coach and also a trainer who serves as the “summer drillmaster” to local players at all levels.

Former Aces coach Brent Thompson, now an Islanders assistant, taught him some finer points of fighting and being a pro. ECHL coaches Jason Christie, Derek Laxdal and Chuck Weber were winds at his back. He thanked former Aces captain Scott Burt, who was also Johnson’s teammate in Utah, and Boguniecki.

And, of course, his family, and all those friends back home in Anchorage, who are legion.

“Those times you have doubt, your friends always build you up, and you want to keep going,” Johnson said.

Foremost in Johnson’s mind is Tuesday’s training with his team.

“I want to dominate practice,” he said.

Still, he’s a dreamer, and 19 games remain in the Islanders’ regular season, so getting summoned to the NHL is not impossible. So many times, Johnson’s career seemed to hit its ceiling. With this guy, you learn one thing: Never say never.

“You know what?” Johnson said. “It’s possible. I’ll keep giving my best.”