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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.

It’s been quite a year for University of Minnesota sophomore goalie Adam Wilcox. He’s been named the player and goalie of the year in the Big 10. He’s a top 10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award and a top five finalist for the inaugural Mike Richter Award, presented to the best goalie in men’s college hockey.

And now he has his team in the NCAA Frozen Four in Philadelphia.

I have had the opportunity work with Adam on several occasions. In 2013, he was a counselor at the Minnesota Hockey Dave Peterson Reebok High Performance Goalie Camp that I run every summer. He did a great job with the kids and have fun in that role. He also participated in that camp when he was a ninth grader in high school.

During his youth hockey days, the Carroll Goalie School was hired to work with Adam and the other goalies in the South St. Paul Youth Hockey Association. I remember him as not being very polished at that stage in his career, but you could tell he was an athlete and quite the competitor who worked hard during the goalie clinics to improve his skills. You could also tell he had the potential to be something special.

It’s been fun to watch Adam develop through the years and I wish him nothing but the best as he continues he career with the Gophers and eventually takes his game to the pro level. He’s a sixth round pick of Tampa Bay.

I was digging through some old photos the other day and came upon this classic. It’s a picture of me and my five brothers, all dressed in our Edina hockey jerseys in front of the net on our patio. The photo also served as our family Christmas card that year.

There are six Carroll boys and I was the lone goalie in the group, so that meant there was always plenty of shooters available to help me work on my game. I remember we had some classic battles in our garage, patio and driveway. And from what I recall, we used all kinds of different things for pucks including wooden blocks, sock balls, tennis balls, plastic pucks and spong pucks. It was great action.

Those unstructured games helped us develop our hockey skills, passion and competitive spirit. As it turned out, all of us ended playing varsity hockey for Edina-East or Edina High School. So for more than a decade, there was a Carroll on the Hornets’ roster.

Following our prep careers, the Carroll boys all took their talents on to college hockey. I played goalie for Minnesota State University, Mankato (Mankato State University), two other brothers also played for the Mavericks, while other brothers skated at Wisconsin, Michigan and Michigan Tech.

Years later, we all still involved in the game in some capacity. I run my goalie school and help coach the Gustavus Adolphus College women’s team with my older brother Mike, who is the head coach. Another brother is head hockey coach at New England College, while others are referees or youth hockey coaches.

My late dad was hockey player, coach and referee himself and obviously was instrumental in getting us started in the game.

It was a picture postcard setting as I skated out onto a neighborhood pond recently to give a young goalie a private lesson.

The 8-year-old was so excited about strapping on her goalie equipment and learning how to play the position.

First, we worked on the proper stance, including glove and stick position. From there we practiced skating “as a goalie” frontwards and backwards. And introduced to a handful of the lateral moevments that goalies use. She did a wonderful job.

After that, I shot tennis balls and mini-pucks at her to give her an idea of what it’s like to stop a shot. She was a quick learner and made a number of “big” saves.

I think the goalie had a lot of fun and so did I. She made noticeable improvements to her game during our 60-minute session.

I enjoyed helping her improve skills and it was a great day to be skating outdoors.

In my 14 years as goalie coach for the Gustavus Adolphus women’s hockey team, I don’t think I have ever experienced a more emotional locker room than I did today following our team’s 3-2 win over Augsburg.

The tears were flowing because it marked the final time one of our players would be in uniform as a member of the team.

Goalie Marah Sobczak, who made a remarkable and inspirational return to the ice last fall after being involved in a serious car accident two years ago, recorded the win in her last game as a Gustie.

She begins grad school this week at the University of Minnesota to start work on her master’s degree in civil engineering.

Marah is a physics major. When we were playing in the 2012 NCAA National Tournament, she won The Elite 89 Award, which is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average among participants at the finals site of each of the NCAA’s 89 championships.

She has also been an instructor as the Carroll Goalie School and helped as a counselor at Minnesota Hockey’s Dave Peterson Reebok High Performance Goalie Camp.

I have enjoyed being Marah’s goalie coach. Her positive can-do attitude, work ethic, desire and determination are unreal. I wish her continued success as she begins a new chapter in her life.

 

 

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to meet defender Anne Schelper, who was recently named to the 2014 U.S. Women’s Hockey Team that will compete in Sochi Olympics next month.

The St. Cloud, Minn., native was a member of the University of Minnesota women’s hockey team at the time when she came to Blaine to help out as a “shooter” at the Minnesota Hockey Dave Peterson Reebok High Performance Goalie Camp I was running.

It didn’t take long for me to realize that Anne was not like the typical college hockey player who helps at the camp.

She was totally into her role and had fun using the time on the ice to work on her shot while challenging the high school goalies. Anne ended up helping at several of the sessions that summer shooting hundreds of pucks.

She also did a great job of connecting and interacting with the goalies. In fact at the end of camp, she gave away her shooter’s uniform to one of the many participants who asked for it.

I’m positive that the desire and determination that Anne showed that weekend helped her along the way of achieving her goal of wearing the red, white and blue in the 2014 Olympics.

I wish Anne continued success! And won’t that be great if she scores a goal or two in the Olympic Games.