Cedar Rapids goalie Kent Patterson committed to Minnesota this morning, filling the hole left by outgoing goalie Jeff Frazee.
Patterson played for The Blake School in the Twin Cities, before heading to the USHL for his last two years of high school. The duo of Patterson and sophomore Alex Kangas should give Minnesota one of the best goaltending tandems in the WCHA next year.
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16 comments:
There was a typo in this post, Chris. You mentioned that this new recruit would fill the hole that was left by Frazee leaving. Actually, the hole was bigger when Frazee was there.....it was his 5 hole.
I was hoping the Gophers would get a commitment from Patterson. Nice job!
I wonder how it feels knowing that the only reason you got a scholarship offer is because Hartzel turned down Minnesota?
One of the best goaltending tandems? Let's actually see Patterson play before we make that comment shall we?
He was a backup for Brady Hjelle - let's not get carried away.
Kangas will play 75% of the games anyway.
The OHL did not want Patterson.
Good news for the other teams in the WCHA. Time will tell if they can have two goalies from MN that will be able to perform at a level expected at the U. Kangas was sweet this year and hopefully he can do it again.
A few things:
1. Anon 12:42am is right. It would be very tough for a sophomore and a freshman to constitute the best tandem in the WCHA. It's possible that it will be true, but Minnesota is still weak defensively, even with one more year of experience to the blue line. I think that EVENTUALLY they will be one of the best tandems in the league, but it will be tough for that to happen next year. That being said, Patterson inherits a better situation than Eidsness does at UND.
2. Patterson did backup Hjelle for much of the season. Why? Because Patterson got injured and Hjelle picked up the slack. The coach then went with the "hot hand." I'm not sure if this is a bad thing in Patterson's outlook. It was just a reality that Patterson faced. Besides, what does it matter when Patterson's primary duty this next season will be to serve as backup to Kangas?
A good pickup most certainly for Minnesota. I'm not surprised that they picked him up, though.
Nothing against Hartzel, but I would rather have a kid come in who isn't afraid of challenging an established goalie for playing time. I can see where it might be nice to handed the starting job for the player, but the team likely benefits from the competition for playing time. Hopefully that competition leads to better goal tending whoever ends up starting for the Gophers.
Also, Patterson ended up backing up Hjelle because of a sports hernia which kept him out of the line-up until December. Patterson was the USHL all rookie team goalie in the 2006-2007 season.
blah-blah-blah: If the Gophers were so weak defensively, why did Duncan and Oshie score a combined total of two goals against them this year? Oshie's goal by the way was off his skate, which was much less legitimate than the goal waved off in the NC game this season.
The Gophers defensive play was not the problem this past season. A weak power play was the real culprit. But if you want to keep peddling the falsehood that the Gophers were weak defensively this past season go right ahead. Keep kidding yourself that that was your teams strength. 6>1
If you know goaltending, You know that Brady Hjelle is far better than Kent Patterson. However, Patterson is good and we will see if he can shake the MN Jinx. Frazee was good for a year as well (Burnsville). Kangas- Awesome Freshman year (Rochester) Patterson (Breck School)who knows.
If he was really good he would have been taken already.
Hartzel take an offer if given, you are not that good.
Hartzell turned down U of M? Why, because Kangas is only a soph? Where is Hartzell going, back to Sioux Falls then?
6>1...You gonna cheer for the Goofs or the Eagles...pick a team already.....blah, blah said nothing about Oshie and Duncan...Since when is a teams defence measured by the success of two players that go against it?? And if you're gonna praise your D over Kangas for your success, get a clue already...There's a reason why your teams goals against avg. was significantly different with Kangas in net instead of Frazee....
anon 8:29,
You might want too get in line for a clue, too.
The Gopher defense was much less consistent in the first half and much improved, at least defensively, in the second half. Frazee played very little in the second half, which skews the statistics. Kangas deserves a lot of the credit, just not all of it.
Not to mention, defense was rarely this Gopher team's problem. Lack of scoring is what killed them all season.
anon 8:00
Hjelle 2.50 GAA .921 Save%
Patterson 2.91 GAA .913 Save%
If you think those numbers mean one of those goalies is "far better" than the other, you don't know much about goal-tending anyway. Add the fact that Patterson didn't play until December because he was recovering from surgery and "far better" looks like an even more of an idiotic pronouncement. Some kids are good enough that they can wait to see all the offers their going to get, instead of taking the first thing put in front of them. According to the Gopher Hockey Blog Patterson had offers from RPI, Maine, Notre Dame, Alaska-Anchorage, and Quinnipiac.
Minnesota played the trap much better in the second half. I heard Lucy was going to work with the Wild staff at refining the trap systems and the rodents should be very strong defensively.
anon 8:23,
Perhaps your team could have picked up a lesson to use against BC, no?
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