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Hard to believe, but it was 35 years ago this month that the U. S. Olympic hockey team captured the gold medal in the 1980 Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York. Every hockey fan remembers where they were during those Miracle on Ice moments. I recall watching the games from my college dorm room at Minnesota State, Mankato.

And it was quite a thrill for me to actually meet one of the heroes from that game. I had the opportunity to meet and have my picture taken with goalie Jim Craig when he was in town recently.

Do you know that in March of 1979, USA Hockey actually held open tryouts for the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team? Even though most people felt Coach Brooks knew who he wanted on his team and had a very good idea of where those players would be coming from. Highly unlikely that Coach Brooks would gamble on taking a random player from an open tryout.

None the less, me and some of my Minnesota State hockey teammates thought it would be cool to say we tried out for the Olympic team. Open tryouts were held in Minneapolis, Detroit and Boston.

A bunch of us registered for the tryouts in Minneapolis. Turns out, our team qualified for the NCAA Division II National Tournament, which was held about the same time as the tryout in Minneapolis. We contactedorganizers and asked if we could switch to the Detroit location.

They told us no, but said they would have scouts at the national tournament. If anyone caught their eye, they would be receive a special invite.

At the national tournament I made 59 saves in our semifinal game and another 42 in the championship game. 101 saves in two games. Not bad, but guess what, not good enough to win the national championship or to get a special invite to the open tryouts in Motown.

Not that I figured I had a shot at making the team, but it would have been fun to say that I at least had a chance to tryout for the club.

As many of you know, I played youth and high school hockey in Edina. And because of that, it is always fun to be involved helping the Hornets.

Once again this year, I was invited back to be one of the evalators during the association’s goalie tryouts. There is an abundance of talented goalies in this program and I enjoy seeing the progress from year to year.

In addition to helping grade the goalies, I am also doing private lessons for some Edina netminders this season.

I am working with some of the goalies during their team practices while others are choosing to train during private ice rentals.

The one-on-one sessions are really helping with the individual skill development of these goalies. And their hard work is paying off for their teams as they are off to a fast start.

Today, I am excited to begin my 15th season as goalie coach for the Gustavus Adolphus College women’s hockey team. I work for my older brother Mike, who is entering his 16th season behind the bench as the team’s head coach. Going into the season, Mike has a career record of 331-78-25 for a .791 winning percentage.

During the season, I usually make it down to St. Peter once a week for a two-hour goalie development session. I then rejoin the team on weekends to be on the bench for the games. We have three goalies on the team this season.

In addition to our competitive Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference schedule, we also play a challenging non-conference schedule against some of the top teams in NCAA Division III women’s hockey.

The non-conference schedule includes a trip to New York in late November to face-off against the defending National Champions from Plattsburgh State.

We also play UW-River Falls and UW-Stevens Point which also played in the National Tournament last season.

I am looking forward to a good season for the Gusties.

Check out the article I was asked to write for Let’s Play Hockey’s boys’ high school hockey preview issue that came out Oct. 23. It’s about encouraging coaches to make goalie development a priority, instead of an after thought.

Read the article

About 50 of the state’s top high school goalies participated in the 10th Minnesota Hockey Dave Peterson Reebok High Performance Goalie Camp in late July at the Super Rink in Blaine.

The four-day goalie development program, now in its 10th year, is designed to improve the individual skills, techniques and consistency of boys and girls in the 15-to 18-year-old age group.

Goalies were invited to participate in the camp based on their performance in the USA Hockey/Minnesota Hockey Reebok High Performance festivals.

I am USA Hockey’s Minnesota District Goalie Coach-in-Chief and have served as director of the camp since I created it in 2005.

It’s an excellent, upper level learning experience for these goalies. It intense, challenging, and a fun weekend. Each year, the goalies work extremely hard at improving their individual skills.

This year’s camp featured a special guest instructor – Kevin Reiter, goaltending coach, USA Hockey, National Team Development Program, who came to the camp from Ann Arbor, Mich.

I had the opportunity to work with Kevin during the two days he was in town.  I learned a lot from him including some cool drills that I will incorporate into my upcoming camps.

Kevin told me he really tried to stress how paying attention to even the smallest detail really adds up to a goalies overall performance. The goalies took the constructive criticism well and asked questions about certain situations and how they should be played. That showed me that they were engaged and wanted to learn and get better.”

Also helping this year was Justin Goldman, regional scout and mentor for USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program. He compiled several video clips of the participants.

Goldman and Reiter were part of the staff that featured an impressive list of Minnesota college and high school goalie coaches.

That group included Mitch Baker, Bethel University women’s team; Steve DeBus, Hamline University women’s team; Justin Johnson, University of Minnesota men’s team; Mike Moline, Park-Cottage Grove High School girls team; Greg Moore, St. Mary’s University women’s team; Tom Peart, Totino-Grace High girls team; Jeff Polski, St. Catherine’s University women’s team; Bob Rajanen, Red Wing High School boys team. Other youth hockey goalie coaches who helped were Kevin Galbraith, Alyssa Grogan, Bill Manual.

“For me, it was a great experience talking and learning from the instructors who coach at various levels of the game,” Reiter said. “They picked simple drills that directly translated to game situations. The simplicity and repetition made the camp valuable for participants. The goalies definitely left the camp smarter and with a better skill set.”

Our 20th season of helping goalies improve their skills, confidence, consistency and overall performance is underway.

We kicked off our first session of the summer June 20-22 at Richfield Arena. A great group of hard working goalies came to see us that weekend. They made a lot of  progress in their game. We worked on a variety of aspects of the goalie position including skating skills, lateral movements, glove saves, stick saves, rebound control, butterfly technique and breakaways

And then there was the “goalies vs coaches” game. A popular camp tradition that we do at the end of every session. The first camp of the summer ended in thrilling fashion as the goalies won the series in overtime -:)

At our camps, we help all the kids get their game on track. Our coaches are passionate about goaltending and do an excellent job of explaining, demonstrating, and reinforcing the proper techniques used in today’s game.We teach the kids to compete on every, control their rebounds and think about doing anything and everything possible to keep the puck out of the net.

Don’t miss out. Register your child today at www.carrollgs.com

 

Just returned from a family trip to New York City. During our visit to the Big Apple, we were able to see a lot of the cool attractions including Times Square, Broadway Ave., Central Park, the 9/11 Museum, Citi Field, the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and Rockerfeller Plaza.

We also visited historic Madison Square Garden. While we were in town, the Rangers were in Los Angeles for Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

The city was buzzing about the Blue Shirts. We watched what turned out of be the deciding game from a sports bar across the street from the Garden. It’s was quite the experience. The place was rockin’ and packed with Ranger fans, all dressed in jerseys and t-shirts supporting their favorite club.

Earlier in the day, the team had set-up a free RangerTown fan experience near the arena featuring inactive games, exhibits, NHL trophies and autograph sessions with former Ranger greats. It was a fun place to be and made it easy to get into the spirit of the playoffs.

We also took a 90-minute tour of the arena, which had just undergone a $1 billion upgrade. It was very impressive.

Throughout the building they had photos showing significant events at Madison Square Garden for each day of the year. They had photos showing memorable concerts, presidential apperances, boxing matches and hockey games. That display also included some historic events featuring goalies like back in 1959 when Montreal’s Jacques Plante became the first NHL goalie to wear a mask during a game.

 

Regardless of who is playing, I always enjoy watching the Stanley Cup Finals. The games are always intense and close, usually settled by the slimmest of margins.

This year’s match-up also features a great battle between two of the league’s top goalies in Jonathan Quick of the Kings and Henrik Lundqvist of the Rangers. Both guys get the job done and are difference makers, but they do so in their own special way.

Quick, a 28-year-old from Connecticut, is the Kings $7 million dollar man. He is very athletic and an aggressive competitor who spends a ton of the game on his knees. He also has tremendous lateral mobility and is tough down low so the key for the Rangers is to shoot high on the two-time U.S. Olympian.

On the other end of the ice is Lundqvist, who earns slightly more than $5 million a season. The 32-year-old from Sweden plays a deep-in-the-crease style and works it to perfection. He plays big, is patient, stays on his feet longer than most goalies and covers a lot of the net. Because he plays so deep in the net, he is hard to beat low, with his short lateral movements.

The Kings, like some of the other NHL teams, are figuring out that the best place to beat Lundqvist is on his blocker side.

As it usually does, the series will come down to which goalie plays the best. In end, I think it will be Quick and the Kings who hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup. Either way, it’s sure to be entertaining theater.

I spent some time recently at the National Arena Conference & Expo in Columbus, Ohio, a popular educational event and exposition for the ice rink industry. I was a there as a guest of USA Hockey and part of a goalie development committee.

Myself and three other goalie coaches from throughout the country met with USA Hockey leaders for two days to revamp the goalie coaching sections of the Coaching Education Program. Our goal was to make sure the messaging was consistant throughout the various materials and easy to follow for coaches assigned to teach kids how to play goalie.

We worked on goaltending sections in the Level 1, 2, 3 coaching certification powerpoints, handbooks, online modules and usahockeygoaltending.com website.

We also made plans to expand the video library by adding videos that show various technqiues and drills. The updates should be in place by the fall.

We had some great discussions on various goaltending topics and techniques. I’m confident we made significant improvements to the curriculm that will help youth hockey coaches feel more comfortable teaching the most important position in the game.

 

It’s no secret that you need a hot goalie to survive in the NHL playoffs. Right now, the Minnesota Wild doesn’t have one.

At times during the regular season, rookie Darcy Kuemper showed flashes of brilliance but he has been slowed down by injuries. He got hurt again in game 7 against Colorado and is listed as day to day.

That means for now, the Wild have to lean on Ilya Bryzgalov, the veteran netminder they picked up in a trade in early March. After being acquired, the 33-year-old was solid in goal, posting a 7-1 record down the stretch.

But during the playoffs, it’s been a different story. Bryz has allowed 12 goals in four games and has a 1-3 record. His lone win was the relief effort in game 7 where he made one save in overtime. He currently has a .821 save percentage in the post season with a goals against average is 4.16. Far from impressive.

A 6-3, he covers a lot of the net when he sets up in his stance. But he seems to struggle moving side to side and at times, tracking the puck.

He really needs to pick up his game if the Wild are going to have any chance of slowing down the high-powered Blackhawks. If not, the Wild’s season will be over, and likely, so will Bryzgalov’s short stint with Minnesota.