Massachusetts goaltender Filip Lindberg has elected to forgo his senior season, withdrawing from school to pursue a career in professional hockey.
Lindberg, the NCAA leader in goals-against average and save percentage in 2020-21, helped guide the Minutemen to the program’s first NCAA and Hockey East tournament titles as a junior and earned an All-USCHO Second Team nod this past season.
“Fille Lindberg has decided to withdraw from school in order to pursue professional hockey opportunities in North America and will not be returning for his senior season,” said UMass coach Greg Carvel in a statement. “Fille was simply outstanding in the net this past season and proved that he is ready to move on to the next level of hockey. His development as a goaltender during his time at UMass has been impressive and I give a ton of credit to associate head coach Jared DeMichiel, who works closely with our goalies.
“Fille has our full support after being an outstanding part of our team and culture and a critical part of our winning the national championship.”
Lindberg tied for the third lowest GAA and posted the fourth-best save percentage in NCAA Division I men’s hockey history in 2020-21 at 1.24 and .949, respectively. The Hockey East Second-Team All-Star and Frozen Four All-Tournament Team and All-Region Team honoree and Most Outstanding Player at the NCAA East Regional went 10-1-4 with five shutouts during his junior campaign. His five shutouts, good for second in the nation, included one in the Hockey East championship game, one in the East Regional Final and one in the NCAA championship game as he set the NCAA record for career shutouts in the NCAA tournament (4).
The Espoo, Finland native leaves UMass as the program’s all-time leader in save percentage (.935) and GAA (1.62), logging 2,745 minutes over 49 contests with 1,067 career saves. He ranks second all-time in career shutouts (10) and fifth in wins with a career record of 28-10-6. Lindberg holds the program record for single-season GAA (1.32, 2020-21) as well as the No. 2 mark on the list (1.60, 2018-19). He tied program single-season record for shutouts in 2020-21 and 2018-19 with four in each of those campaigns and owns the second (.946, 2020-21) and third (.934, 2018-19) single-season save percentage marks.
Lindberg was originally selected by the Minnesota Wild in the seventh round (197th overall) in the 2019 NHL Draft.
