August 12, 2004
Brighter Future for SCSU, Goepfert

A glance at St. Cloud State’s painful recent past has Huskies coach Craig Dahl building for the future. Part of his hope for better days to come was cemented earlier this week when former Providence goalie Bobby Goepfert committed to SCSU. While he won’t play this season, sitting out the NCAA-mandated one-season layoff that comes with transferring, Goepfert brings the promise of talent in an area the Dahl admits the Huskies are hurting.

“We were in third place in the WCHA with six conference games to play last season, and we didn’t win another game,” said Dahl, whose team ended the season on a 0-7-1 streak. “Our goalies were .786 (save percentage) down the stretch, and didn’t really face an overwhelming number of shots. Goaltending just killed us at the end of the year.”

Goepfert, a native of Kings Park, N.Y., won 21 games over two seasons with Providence, and has a career save percentage of around .920. He was dismissed from the Friars in May after some academic troubles and weighed his transfer options over the summer. Goepfert had given St. Cloud State strong consideration while skating for the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Roughriders of the USHL, before committing to Providence.

While NCAA rules prevent Dahl from commenting directly about Goepfert, he acknowledged that the Huskies are bringing in new goalies for next season and looking to the future. As for the present, senior-to-be Adam Coole has graduated and left the Huskies program, meaning that the netminding job will belong to junior Tim Montgomery and/or sophomore Tim Boron in 2004-05.

– Jess Myers