Sometimes it’s difficult to judge, especially at the goaltending position, when to make a decision to turn to a freshman as your team’s starting netminder. A number of factors are considered, including the returning goalies, the freshman’s maturity and development in the college game, and how the rest of the club plays in front of each of goalie.
Keith Kinkaid is 3-0-1 in his last four starts.
Union freshman Keith Kinkaid arrived in Schenectady with numerous accolades from an outstanding junior hockey career. He led the St. Louis Bandits to the North American Hockey League championship one year ago and captured four prestigious individual honors. He was named league MVP, Goaltender of the Year and a First Team All-League pick during the regular season with a 30-5 record and 1.78 goals-against average, .935 save percentage and seven shutouts. He went on to earn Robertson Cup playoff MVP honors with even better numbers in 12 games (1.15 GAA, .951 sv. pct., 3 SO).
Despite that impressive resume, Kinkaid made just two starts for Union in the Dutchmen’s first nine games. His first start was a 3-1 loss at St. Cloud State, in which he made 30 saves. He started again at home against Sacred Heart, and was yanked after the first period during which he allowed four goals. Throughout that time, Kinkaid’s attitude and work ethic never wavered. He worked extra time with Union goaltending coach Jason Tapp, a former college goalie at Boston University.
“It was great. He competed in practice and was champing at the bit to get his opportunity. He got it last week and took advantage of the opportunity. He played two great games for us. That’s what you want from a young kid. He got his opportunity, he worked really hard to get better and better and he got his opportunity, took advantage of it,” Tapp said.
Kinkaid got his chance to get back on the ice during Union’s North Country trip Nov. 13-14. He started and won at St. Lawrence, stopping 20 shots. He made 18 saves in a 5-1 win at Clarkson the following night.
After some time off during an exam period at Union College, the Dutchmen returned to the ice at last week’s RPI Holiday Tournament and Kinkaid started both nights in helping Union to the tournament title. He posted his first career shutout with 33 saves in a 0-0 tie against Lake Superior State in the first round. He stopped all three shootout attempts in the tiebreaker to send the Dutchmen to the championship game, a 5-4 overtime win over the host Engineers.
“Our goalie coach, Jason Tapp has been working with us pretty well the whole season. After every practice we’ll stay with him for about 20 minutes and he helps us out a lot,” Kinkaid said. He said the things that he’s trying to improve on include challenging and staying square to shooters and recovering after making initial saves.
Kincaid has very good size in net, at 6-foot-3, and one of Kinkaid’s strongest attributes is lateral movement.
“He competes really well. He’s a big kid and he moves side to side really well. We’re trying to get him to move a little crisper but he uses his size well to get out of the net and make himself bigger,” Tapp said. “I think he’s going to be a very good college goalie. He has the potential to be a standout goalie in our division. It’s just a matter of being consistent. That’s what we’re going to work on. You’ve got to put it together every night in college hockey. You can’t have a bad night.”
After his most recent triumphs at the RPI Tournament, Kinkaid earned his second ECAC Hockey weekly honor, as he was named Goaltender of the Week. Two weeks earlier after the wins at St. Lawrence and Clarkson he earned Rookie of the Week honors. It’s no surprise to see his name on the honor roll after a decorated NAHL season in St. Louis, and we can expect plenty of other honors to go his way during his days at Union.
THREE MORE THINGS WORTH KNOWING
• RPI has been affected by injuries all season, including several to key players like Mike Bergin and Tyler Helfrich. There was additional concern last weekend when standout freshman Jerry D’Amigo left RPI’s tournament semifinal with a leg injury after catching his skate in a rut in the ice. Initial expectations were that D’Amigo would miss at least a few weeks while he recovers, but he was back on the ice for practice in the middle of this week and could play versus Colgate and Cornell this weekend.
• Mike Clemente dunno. What did you say? I say who own da Crimson? And what did he say? Owns. Owns.
Brown sophomore goalie Mike Clemente earned his third straight win over Harvard at Bright Hockey Center with a 42-save effort Tuesday in Brown’s 4-1 win. It was his third straight victory after last spring’s back-to-back shutouts of Harvard in the playoffs. Over the last three wins, Clemente has a 0.33 goals-against average and has stopped 128 of 129 shots – a .992 save percentage.
• The Good: Union won the RPI tournament despite sitting seven key players, including most of the team’s top scorers, one game each for violating team rules. The Bad: St. Lawrence got dinged for 10 goals against in a loss against Maine at Portland, Maine last weekend. The Saints yielded five goals in the first period and played all three of their goalies in the game. The Ugly: After a season-opening victory over Dartmouth, Harvard is 0-7-2 in their last nine games. Their next five games are against Boston College, Quinnipiac, at Minnesota (twice) and Yale.
