Minnesota State senior goaltenders Mike Zacharias and Dan Tormey insist any competition between the two of them is of the friendly nature. That’s a good thing these days for the teammates and roommates, who suddenly are competing not only to see who gets to the shower first in the morning, but who gets to the crease first on Friday night.

Tormey’s college career started with a flash, when he played in 31 games as a freshman, winning 14 of them, and grabbing a spot on the WCHA’s All-Rookie team alongside current NHLers Brian Lee, T.J. Oshie, Mason Raymond and Phil Kessel. Zacharias was more of a slow starter for the Mavericks, playing in just six games that season.

Mike Zacharias

But a nasty cut in a game at Minnesota when he was a sophomore forced Tormey out of action for a time, and opened the door for Zacharias to take over the reins between the pipes. For a while, it looked as if Tormey would be remembered in a similar light as the guy who took a day off to make way for Lou Gehrig.

“It’s not that (Tormey) wasn’t there, it’s just that Zac was so good I had to play him,” said Mavericks coach Troy Jutting of the switch.

Last season, when they were juniors, Zacharias got the start in 35 of the Mavs 39 games, winning 18 of them. Tormey was always supportive of his friend and roommate, but admits to some challenging times watching from the bench.

“You can’t argue when the guy ahead of you is playing as good as he is, but it was tough,” said Tormey, who hails from Syracuse, N.Y. “Every day was a battle just going into practice and trying to stay mentally sharp and keep my game intact. It’s easy to slip and just pack your bags as a senior, but every day in practice I go in and make sure I’m sharp for the guys.”

A few weeks ago, Zacharias’ streak of consecutive starts had stretched to 48 games, but times were hard in Mankato. The Mavericks were 0-6-0 in December to sink below .500 for the first time, and after a 5-2 loss at Colorado College a few Fridays ago, Jutting felt it was time to turn back to Tormey, at least for one night, in search of a spark. Tormey won’t admit to feeling rust or butterflies as he was warming up in Colorado Springs that night, but understood the importance of what he had to do.

Dan Tormey

“I’ve played enough here that I was fine going in, but I knew the gravity of the situation,” said Tormey, who stopped all but one of the Tigers’ 28 shots that night in a 3-1 win. Jutting gave Tormey the nod again last Friday - a 4-2 home loss to Alaska Anchorage, then came back with Zacharias the next night to get a split with a 7-1 win (”Tonight he looked like Mike Zacharias again,” Jutting said afterward.)

As the Mavericks prepared to visit Minnesota Duluth this weekend, the coach was undecided on whether or not the roommates would be sharing the crease at the DECC as well.

“I don’t know yet,” Jutting said. “I’m kind of going along through the week, seeing mentally where they’re at and then trying to do the best job I can of putting the kid in there that I think is going to give us the best chance to win.”

Zacharias admits that it sounds clichéd and phony, but living under the same roof off the ice really has bred no animosity between two men who are in competition for playing time at the rink.

“We have a friendly competition and a great relationship,” said Zacharias, who came to Mankato from the Minneapolis suburb of Plymouth. “Whenever the other goalie is in the net, we encourage each other. It’s a friendly, hard competition. We definitely make each other better.”

Tormey said there are definitely disagreements between the pair, but they’re more of the “who left the lid off the peanut butter” variety.

“We have some fights about roommate things, but it’s all good,” Tormey said. “We’ve been teammates for four years and it’s always good to have a healthy relationship with your goaltending partner. That goes a long way on and off the ice.”

And if there’s a rotation to be seen at Minnesota State in the final two months of the WCHA season, it will be interesting to see how far that friendly competition takes them on the ice as well.

“If we can do a rotation, great,” Tormey said. “Whatever it takes for this team to win.”