WCHA GOALIES: THE BEST OF THE BEST

About two months ago I wrote a blog about the Colorado College goaltending situation. Many people praised it as truth in action and a call for Owens to do something. Just about everyone in my CC facebook group called me some obnoxious name. I was even called, yes, a DU fan.

I'm not a DU fan, but I love watching goalies play. That's because I play goalie so I understand the position better than I do any of other other five spots. While two months ago I was heckling Owens for his defensive problems, I now praise him for figuring it out amidst a goaltending problem.

So without further ado, my "subjective" views of the WCHA goalies:
(Note: With the exception of a couple of teams, I am only including starting goalies)

My rankings:
1: Aaron Dell, UND: This guy is my favorite goalie in the NCAA. At 6 feet tall, Dell fills in as the "average" height for a goalie. College net minders have a range from 5'7 all the way to 6'6. Getting in anywhere in the 6's almost guarantee's success. Aside from Dell's height, I have quite a bit to like about him. First his stance. Dell plays a shallow stance on the dead angles and widens up out front. This is common of a goalie who lacks speed to go post to post when a guy like Nick Bjugstad or Jaden Schwartz is waiting on the other side. But the thing is, Dell carries speed..and a lot of it. Dell will usually wait on the side for the wrap around and bait the player into thinking they have a centering pass option. Then he will explode to the puck and pick off any attempt at a centering shot. His lateral movements are great and trying to score on this guy down low is almost impossible. Which is why his shallow upright stance presents a problem for anyone thinking about roofing for the peanut butter. A so-so team in front of him has UND as a middle of the pack team this year. If things were different, UND might be ranked #1 right now.

2: Sam Brittain, DU: At 6'3 I have a hard time not picking Sam over Aaron Dell. He explodes the same way Aaron Dell does but has the extra 3 inches of height to cover his posts. As a goalie, you have to use whatever means is available to get the save. I'm not a fan of DU because I like CC, but I really enjoy watching Brittain play. Like Dell, he plays with a shallow stance and explodes to the puck....sometimes. Brittain has tremendous speed, but spectators rarely get to see it because this guy is always in position. Instead of making flex saves or doing t-pushes to get from side to side, brittain shuffles. This is a sign that a player is at or near in line with the puck. I would rank Brittain tied with Dell, but he doesn't hold the same speed as Dell so this is why he get's #2.

3: Kent Patterson, UM: At 6'1, Patterson again makes a strong case for a good goalie. The difference between the first two goalies and the remaining ones is a landslide. Patterson is not my favorite goalie to watch by any means. In fact I doubt I would rank him this high if it wasn't for the fact that Minnesota is like 4 players away from a fully drafted team...including Patterson. I would say that Patterson's best area's belong to his puck tracking. Seeing a puck from the blue line is not a hard task, unless your name is Adam Murray. Seeing the puck through traffic can get difficult, but again positioning will save you on that. Seeing the puck from five feet away with a heavy handed sniper is a difficult task that separates the elite from the rest. Patterson's glove reaction time is second to none. He's not a body player like Howe, Faulkner and Reiter, but he puts himself in position to make body saves. A very good attribute. Ultimately Patterson starts the decline of netminders who start lacking. If anyone had the chance to watch CC play Minnesota you may have caught Dineen's goal against patty. Patterson left his five hole wide open and Dineen snagged him going from left to right. As a low playing shot, Patterson should have pushed off and followed Dineen with a closing-five hole slide. He didn't because he lacks the low shot play.

4. Dan Bakala, BSU: Dan is below the 6'0 mark which starts the disadvantage. It's not all bad news being shorter than six feet, the work required to make a casual save is more though. Dan is a puck reader like Patterson. He's also a positional guy like Brittain which makes him ever more dangerous. His downside is the rebounds he kicks out. If he was playing on a team like Minnesota or Minnesota-Duluth, these problems would disappear. But he's not. He's playing for bemidji where the goalie is not the last line, it's the defense.

5. Josh Thorimbert, CC: Another guy shorter than 6 feet, thorny has the slight disadvantage in this area. The defense in front of him has been non-existent for most of the year yet he has played strong. Thorny is not a guy who opens his stance much or applies a heavy amount of speed. He's a puck reader and a stand up style goalie. This is by no means a disadvantage, it just is the way thorny plays. Breakaways and odd man rushes are Thorny's specialty. He can handle just about anything coming his way. If not for a little bit more speed, thorny would be 1,2, or 3 on this list.

6. Mike Lee, SCSU: Mike is a guy who stands at 6'1 and really looks quite a bit bigger than that in the net. He plays a very wide stance and covers most of the net by playing in one spot. He's got the speed to come out of a wide stance and make critical saves. One of the marquee traits of a wide stance player is their flexibility. This is what mike lacks. It's because of this that he had troubles at the end of last year and prior to his injury this year. Maybe some flexibility training will improve his odds that he won't be the next guy to be cut when he show's up for his AHL assignment next fall.

7. Juho Olkinuora, DU: The fall of Sam Brittain and Adam Murray certainly left a big hole to fill in the DU net. Enter Juho. I don't understand Juho fully because he only has one season under his belt. From what I have seen, he looks like a set player. These are the garden variety goalies who come in their freshman year expecting the plays to be as slow as they were in high school or juniors. The wake up call comes quickly. Juho has broken out of that shell a bit, but he certainly showed that his comfort is a solid read and a hold when Alexander Krushelnyski came down on a penalty shot last December. He's got some work to do if he ever wants to be higher than the third goalie within DU's goalie corps.

8. Joe Howe, CC: Joe came into this season as the #1 goalie from the past two seasons. Joe has worked hard each off season to make himself better. His appearance in last years NCAA tournament against Michigan was great. Although he lost, he made some crucial saves that kept CC in the game. Joe plays a different type of game than any other goalie in the WCHA thus far. I grew up playing pond hockey and I see the image of Joe's style from the ponds in Minnesota. Ponds are much rougher and harder to slide on when playing goalie. The pads stick to the ice and often require the goalie to make flex saves or include a heavy dose of power. Joe has both of these. I would say he's the strongest positional goalie in the WCHA. When the puck gets into his zone, he locks on like a missle. He watches the puck for every square inch it moves. But unfortunately, the world arena is not a pond. This makes Joe's incredible power and high flexibility nearly useless. Joe can handle players in his zone, but when the puck comes one on one players tend to deke him into making a flex save and then they roof it on him. Without a stellar defense in hand, this type of tending is difficult to do in the WCHA. Hopefully Joe can rebound from this year and revert to his old self.

9. Kenny Reiter, UMD: Of all the goalies on this list, I dislike reiter the most. For his first two seasons, Reiter split time with his partner Aaron Crandall. Until last year, Crandall had the upper hand. And until last year, the Conolly pair had not developed into a forceful duo. Now that one conolly is gone, reiter still has a stellar defense in front of him. However, to be at this level is no coincidence. Reiter is another puck tracker. He can see all the pucks in his zone and stop them. It's the 1 on 1's and the odd man rushes that ruin his days.

10. John Faulkner, UNO: Justin is a great minder who has lost his thunder this season. Another above six foot tall net minder, Faulkner is an open stance type player similar to Mike Lee. His problem rests with his speed. He has too much of it to control. His C-cuts are often sliding stops and that is never good for a goalie. He reminds me of a raw Richard Bachman. Bachman had all of the fundamentals down that Faulkner seems to be missing.

11. Joel Rumpel, UW: For the pat three years, Wisconsin has been treated by Scott Gudmanson and Brian Bennett. Bennett won the World Juniors in net for team USA and Gudmanson took the badgers all the way to the national championship game. Now the game starts over and a new goalie is in. It's Rumpel. Rumpel is by no way fine tuned. He lacks in many area's and looks quite unrefined. I dare ask what Wisconsin's back up goalie looks like if Rumpel beat him out for the starting job.