Around the World of Goaltending: March 16-22, 2017 Edition
Lots of information to go through today ranging from Minor Midget to women’s NCAA to women’s U Sports to the AHL to the CHL and international play. Lots of award winners as well to announce along with a NHL ELC signing! Keep an eye out later on during the CHL playoffs for articles breaking down the goalies of each league statistically looking at every angle possible. For now though please enjoy and if you have anything you believe should be added please feel free to contact me.
1. The OHL Cup ended on Monday night with the Mississauga Reps taking home the OHL Cup. What comes with the end of the Minor Midget season is awards being handed out. First honour of the article goes to goaltender Christian Cicigoi of the Thunder Bay Kings. Cicigoi was named HNO Player of the Year.
2. Cicigoi wasn’t the ‘01 only goalie who recognized. Matthew Dunsmoore of the Guelph Gryphons was named the SCTA Player of the Year.
3. Going with the theme of award winners University of Wisconsin Goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens was awarded the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award. Desbiens is only the 3rd goalie ever to win this highly prestigious award in NCAA history and the first goalie since Jessie Vetter won in 2009. This is a huge accomplishment that only makes it more difficult deciding where to put Desbiens in the Greatest Goalies in Women’s Hockey.
4. Up in Canada for the U Sports Finals, University of Alberta Pandas goalie Lindsey Post was named the U Sports Championship MVP along with being named to the Championship All-Star Team after beating McGill in double OT.
5. Across the country in the West the WHL named Zach Sawchenko the WHL Eastern Conference Top Goalie while Carter Hart was named the Western Conference Top Goalie.
6. Headed back to the Eastern Side of Canada we have some milestones to look at. First off Montreal Canadiens prospect and Owen Sound Attack goalie Michael McNiven ends the CHL regular season with the most wins (41) and the only goalie in the entire CHL to hit the 40-win mark this season. Closest goalie is Erie Otters goalie Troy Timpano.
7. An OHL goalie also ends with the season with the most recorded saves. Undrafted prospect and Niagara IceDogs goalie Stephen Dhillon is the CHL goalie with the most saves this season (2104) and is the only goalie to record +2000 saves. The closest goalie is WHL goalie Griffen Outhouse who recorded 1829 saves.
8. I love when I get to say this “We Have a Signing to Announce”. In this case it’s Calgary Flames prospect Tyler Parsons who signed the standard 3-year ELC with the Flames. The London Knights goalie has certainly earned it this season with WJC Gold and an outstanding OHL regular season.
9. In the AHL the Toronto Marlies became the 2nd AHL team to have six goalies see ice time this season. Kasimir Kaskisuo was goalie no. 6 for the Marlies and beat the Binghamton Senators 4-2 recording 28 saves on 30 shots.
10. Also in the AHL Tom McCollum is having a very good start with the Charlotte Checkers. In five starts four of them have been Quality Starts and he’s posted a 0.946 SV% with Charlotte.
11. While the USA women’s team is working with USA Hockey on getting back on the ice other countries have started to fully announce their rosters. Finland will be bringing Top 2 goalie Noora Raty, Anni Keisala, and Eveliina Suonpaa. Last years’ WHC Goalie All-Star Meeri Raisanen won’t be there.
12. Sweden will be taking Sara Grahn, Sarah Berglind, and Lovisa Berndtsson. Grahn will most likely be the starter.
13. Lastly Russia is taking a different approach with their goalies. The Russian WNT will be holding a training camp before coming to Plymouth and they are bringing in four goalie for the camp: Nadezsha Alexandrova, Maria Sorokina, Nadezhda Morozova, and Valeria Tarakanova. Fans will recognize Morozova’s name as she outlasted Raisanen in the shootout last year for the Bronze Medal.
14. Performance of the Week is hard to choose so I’ll just name three goalies who came to play this week. 2017 NHL Draft prospect Derek Baribeau made 47/48 saves for a 2-1 win over the Sherbrooke Phoenix. In the last game of her NWHL career Brianne McLaughlin made 60 saves on 62 shots for a 3-2 win over the Boston Pride for the Isobel Cup. Last but not least was Shea Tiley of Clarkson University who won the NCAA Championship, beat Ann-Renee Desbiens’ team in the Final, and posted a 0.971 SV% with three shutouts in the last five games of this season.
15. Buffalo Sabres will be looking to sign their NCAA goalie prospect Calvin Petersen when Notre Dame’s season is over. Petersen does have the option of going UFA though he went to Buffalo’s rookie camp in the summer so there is a relationship there.
16. New York Islanders beat writer Arthur Staples reports that goalie prospect Ilya Sorokin will most likely not be making the jump to North America next season as he has one more year left on his KHL contract.
17. Staples also reports that Islander goalie prospect Linus Soderstrom could be signed by the Islanders and left in Sweden next season.
18. Michael McNiven makes it onto here again this time with goalie partner Emanuel Vella for winning the Dave Pinkney Award for least goals allowed during the season.
19. 2017 NHL Draft prospect and Sault Ste Marie Greyhounds goalie Matthew Villalta was awarded the FW “Dinty” Moore Trophy for Lowest Rookie GAA.
20. The WHL Conference All-Star teams were announced with Carter Hart and Zach Sawchenko making the 1st Team of their respective conferences while Connor Ingram and Logan Flodell made the 2nd Team for their respective conferences.
21. With the regular season over in the CHL that means we’re getting close to the U18 World Hockey Championships. Russia has announced their pre-tourney roster which features three goalies: Arseniy Akhmetov, Pyotr Kochetkov, Dimitriy Rayko, and Kirill Ustimenko.
22. Who will Canada bring to the U18’s? The only lock right now is Prince Albert Raiders goalie and 2017 NHL Draft prospect Ian Scott.
23. Do the other already eliminated CHL teams have goalie to offer? In the OHL the Guelph Storm, North Bay Battalion, Saginaw Spirit, and Barrie Colts have been eliminated. No goalies there who have earned a spot on Canada yet.
24. In the QMJHL Sherbrooke and Moncton have been eliminated. Sherbrooke doesn’t have a goalie to offer up but Moncton has Matthew Waite. Hard to say what kind of goalie you are getting with Matthew Waite as the Wildcats have been terrible this year so Waite has suffered a lot. He could be an option for a 3rd goalie.
25. Now in the WHL there are six teams who failed to make the playoffs: Saskatoon Blades, Prince Albert Raiders, Edmonton Oil Kings, Kootenay Ice, Spokane Chiefs and Vancouver Giants. Other than Ian Scott there’s not much there for teams to offer for Team Canada’s U18 team. An interesting name though is Dawson Weatherill from Spokane.
26. Weatherill is interesting because he was on par with starter and experienced WHLer Jayden Sittler. The stats aren’t great with a 0.885 raw SV% and 0.452 QS% but Weatherill did post a 0.556 Bounce Back Quality Start %. Playing for Team Canada could be good for Weatherill.
27. Would make sense though for Team Canada to wait until the 1st round is over before finalizing their goalie selections as they can grab Jake McGrath or Derek Baribeau to bring to Slovakia.