It was an uneven weekend for the CCHA and goaltending in the early going leaves a lot to speculation.
1. Notre Dame junior Steven Summerhays posted a .962 save percentage in his two wins in the Ice Breaker Tournament. ND coach Jeff Jackson has said that Summerhays saw significant improvement in the second half of 2011-12, improvement that would make him formidable this season. This weekend’s performance does a lot to prove Jackson right.
2. Miami freshman Ryan McKay made a most impressive D-I debut with a shutout win over Colgate. His classmate, Jay Williams, allowed one goal in a win the following night.
3. Another rookie who made an impression — the wrong impression — was Michigan’s Jared Rutledge, who was in net when the Wolverines lost 5-4 in overtime to visiting RIT. In fairness to Rutledge, the whole UM team looked bad. His considerably older classmate, Steve Racine, had the same number of saves (21) the following night in a 7-2 win. From the looks of it, Racine received more help than did Rutledge.
Some tested goaltenders had rough starts to the season, including C.J. Motte (Ferris State), Frank Slubowski (Western Michigan) and Will Yanakef (Michigan State), all of whom posted save percentages in the .800s.
Kudos to Jared Coreau, another veteran who left no doubt about his readiness. In two wins over Wisconsin, Coreau allowed three goals and made 37 saves for a percentage of .925.
