Interesting and illuminating comments all re goalies and coaching =
goalies so far.  This is not an aspect of the game the normal fan gets =
to look at.  I think very few people know how to even deal with them =
(thanks, Terry for your observations).
 
One comment struck me regarding our own goaltending at UAF:
 
Cheryl A. Morris wrote
 
>As a rule though I don't think most college teams can employ goalie
>tandems, the team without a #1 goalie.  It's certainly a luxury that =
most
>teams can't afford recruiting-wise.
 
Is that true in other Division I programs?  In Fairbanks, at least in =
the last 5-6 years, we've never had a number one goalie.  Maybe that's =
largely due to injuries and assorted accidents.  We've had torn knee =
ligaments, a broken finger preseason on a returning senior goalie who =
played maybe twice the rest of the year (maybe he was not liked by =
Lucia), a goaltender fall behind the net and conk his head and get a =
concussion in his first game, pulled groin muscles, goalies get sick on =
a road trip before a game at least twice, a goalie fall on the ice and =
break his foot (I don't mean on the rink, I mean outdoors!), another =
sliced by a skate during a game, problems with a skate which caused the =
backup to have to play instead.  There's probably more than that.
 
All those problems aside, even when healthy, we still haven't had a =
number one goalie and the coach gets second-guessed a lot.  I heard a =
lot of comments last night like Perkins is the better goalie, he must =
have gotten hurt again Thursday night.  Last year everyone wanted to see =
Moberg instead of Fish.  We fans do have short loyalties, don't we?
 
We have yet another factor here which I don't think anyone else has.  As =
you may know we have 5 three-game home series due to the long distance =
from the rest of the CCHA.  The three games are mostly all Thursday to =
Saturday nights.  Now if you are the coach, what do you do with that?  =
So far, Dave Laurion appears to choose one for Thursday, one for Friday =
and then pick the other based on performance for Saturday.  The "hotter" =
of the two goalies usually gets the start on Thursday.  Visiting teams =
seem to start the #1 goalie on Thursday and Saturday and the backup on =
Friday.  If nobody gets hurt on our team, the goalie who performed =
better is probably going to get the first shot on the road trip weekends =
and may get to play both games as long as he plays decently the first =
one.
 
Although both of our goalies seem really supportive of each other when =
they are not starting (that's really impressive to me), I'm not sure =
what effect that actually has on them.  Seems to me like it isn't =
necessarily positive, although we do have two goalies neither one of =
whom you're usually sorry to see out there.  To the goalies that have =
responded, would you want to know whether you're starting two nights and =
which ones?  Is this added incentive to play well or do you think =
they're having added pressure placed on them instead?  And in fact do =
you think you'd want to start the same goalie three nights in a row?  =
Moberg went most of three nights after Perkins got hurt within 5-6 =
minutes one Thursday and finished the weekend with bad, mostly good and =
not very good nights (coming in not expecting to play and cold the first =
night obviously).
 
I'm not trying to second-guess the coach, I just don't know.  Laurion is =
a fomer goaltender himself so one would think he knows how to handle =
them.  I was interested to read Shawn Walsh was also a goalie (at least =
I think I read that).  Does anyone have a list of Division I coaches and =
the position they used to play?
 
While we're talking about coaching goalies, what do you do when they =
start losing their confidence?  Maybe Laurion got it figured out for us. =
 Moberg seems to have come around last night.  He came out of the net a =
bit more and took away the openings on shots and a huge defensive =
effort, less penalties and better, much more aggressive penalty killing =
(except on the first one which was bad) limited him to facing 18-20 =
shots instead of 30-40 or more and we got a 3-1 win over UIC.  Getting =
him in against a team we had a better chance to beat seemed to be a big =
help, so look out MSU if he's in the net next month.
 
Thanks for the responses, wish I could give more answers than questions, =
though.
 
Eric Carlson
U of A '78 (that's UAF now)
Fairbanks, Alaska
 
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