This is the second part of a four part post reviewing the players selected to attend a Minnesota Hockey sponsored camp held in St. Cloud Mn the first week in June.  As YHH did with the defensemen, a list of the goalies selected are shown in the table.  Un like the defense list in part 1 which listed the players by weight, this is a alphabetical list.

YHH believes that how a goalie sums his talents and his physical assets determines how talented and successful they become.  Playing goalie on the ice is a lonely position sporadically pierced with moments of pure terror and a good goalie has to deal with adrenalin rushes that go from 0 to 150 in a split second and back to 0 again.

Each goalie has to find that point of play that is optimum for himself and play there consistently.  There is no attribute that can seperate a list of goalies.  Only what they do on the ice.

A prime example of this is former Minnesota North Star goalie and Hall of Famer, Gump Worsley.  He was 5’7″ and weighed 155 lbs (for most of his 30 years playing in the NHL) and he was slightly bowl legged and crotchety.  But he knew his limits and how play goalie.  Often accused of having a beer belly, he said that is wrong.  He only drank whiskey.

100. D5 (#50 Purple) Nick Althaus (6′ 1″/150lbs/L/St. Cloud Apollo Varsity-Athaus comes from a family of goaltenders, his father played for the Wisconsin Badgers and now coaches St. Cloud Cathedral; his brother, Austin, was the starting goalie for St. Cloud Tech last season.Nick played in nine games for the Eagles’ 2011-2012 varsity and started every Eagle game in the 2012-2013 season logging over 1250 minutes in the net.He led the team to a Section 6A championship and faced St. Thomas Academy in the quarterfinal state tourney game.Nick finished 12th among all Central Lakes Conference goalies saving 84% of the shots on goal and posting 3.16 goals per game average.

His older brother, Austin finished fourth last season among the Central Lakes goalies, saving 86% of the shots on net and posting a 3.11 goals per game average playing in Section 8AA.In the year 2012-2013 St. Cloud Cathedral moves to Section 6A.Apollo, with all its young guns returning from last season’s state tourney team, and Catherdral are likely to be seeded 1 and 2 for the sectional tourney.

If that happens, YHH would like to be a mouse in the corner at breakfast to hear what the Catherdral Coach father says to his Apollo goalie son.  Their Mother may not mind, she may be the one to drive Tech goalie Austin to a Section 8AA sectional game in Bemidji that same day.

01. D2 (#47 Black) Brandon Dornfeld (5’9″/170lbs/R/White Bear Lake Bantam B1-Brandon deserves special recognition for making the select 15 trip to St. Cloud.  Not only was he chosen to make the D2 Select 15 team, but he made the list of the top 12 goalies in the state.  He started the 2012-2013  season playing for the Bears’ Bantam B1 team.

Fifteen year old players are still developing and Brandon not only developed but improved over the season.  The White Bear Lake association fielded two B1 teams, the Orange and the Black.  Dornfeld played for the White Bear Lake Orange that ended the season NOW ranked #17 among 120 teams playing B/B1 hockey in the state last year.

With the Bear varsity set with two senior goaltenders next season (one, Chase Gorman, is a HP-17 Final 54 goalie this summer), the door is wide open for Dornfeld.  A good showing at St. Cloud would help him next fall to start to bridge the gap between jv and varsity and establish himself.  The two Bear Bantam AA goalies are first year and Dornfeld’s making the top 12 has to have turned some heads in the Bear’s program (the two bantam AA’s are probably not 15 years old yet and could not play in the Festival.  They are likely to play Bantam AA next season).

That is the tough part of being a goalie parent, it can be a boom or it can be a game of musical chairs.  The boom is when your son or daughter has a lock on the starting spot; the musical chairs is when they have to compete every fall to make a top team.

102. D8 (#54 Orange) Ryan Edquist 5’11″/155lbs/?/Shattuck Bantam AAA-Shattuck-St. Mary’s plays USA hockey at the AAA level.  A player’s grade (9-12) does not matter.  The year a player is borne in matters.  The Sabre’s Bantam AAA team roster last season had mostly 1998’s.  Those players next year will move up to midgets (AA or AAA), U16 AAA, or Prep (U18 AAA).

This year’s Prep team had one 1995 goalie (graduating) and one 1996 goalie (becoming a senior).Each of the Midget teams (AA and AAA) there are two 1996 goalies and one will be a junior next year and one will be a senior next year.On the U16 AAA team, there are 2-1997 goalies.One of the U16 goalies is Evan Robert.Robert is a HP-16 Final 54 select this year.

The logical move for Edquist is to the U16 team.Next year the U16 team will have to have two 1997 or 1998 borne goalies.Edquist and Drew Speckman (the other AAA Bantam goalie) are the only two goalies borne in 1998 in the Shattuck system.If Roberts moves up to the Prep Team, Edquist and Speckman should be competing for that spot.Speckman is from Connecticut and maybe trying to make the select 15’s from Connecticut.

Edquist is from Lakeville.  He played 35 games for the Sabres last season and posted a 29-2-2 record with save average of 0.933 and gave up an average of 1.4 goals a game.

103. D6 (#62 Red) Thomas Hanson/5’9″/155/L/Minnetonka JV-Hanson had a good festival and like the other D6 goalie at the Festival, Dayton Rasmussen, played well enough to make the trip to St. Cloud.  The D6 dominated their pool winning by good scores.  If that happens and you are the goaltender and you are trying to be selected it makes it tough.  Still Hanson and Rasmussen were good enough to get a ticket to St. Cloud.

Hanson played for the Skipper’s JV last season and split time with two other goalies.One was Jacob Berger, a top 12 select 15 goalie last season who made the HP-16 Final 54 this year.The Skippers’ starting goalie from last season is graduating, but Berger, soon to be a junior, looks to be starter for the next two seasons.Hanson will likely need to turn some heads; he has with his making it to St. Cloud, but so did Berger.

104. D10 (#47 Green) Benjamin Meyers/5’10″/140lbs/R/Elk River Bantam AA-Ben is a YHH Top 50 pick from 2012 so it is no surprise that he made it to St. Cloud.Meyers was on the Elk River peewee A team at the State Tourney in March 2012 that lost in the semifinals to eventual state champs Prior Lake 2-1.Meyers played a tough emotional game 14 months ago but seemed more relaxed in the Festival nets this time around.He has grown, but retained that explosive quickness.

Meyers is a first year player on the Elk’s Bantam AA team and likely to return to the Bantam’s next season.  A good St. Cloud camp could cause some change, but the varsity looks set for next season with senior goaltending.

105. D8 (#53 Orange) Sam Moberg 6’1″/170lbs/?/Johnson Varsity-Moberg played over 1250 minutes in the nets for the Governors posting an 8-17-1 record with a 0.862 save percentage while allowing an average of 3.4 goals a game.  The Governors play in the Tri-Metro Conference that was won last season by Breck.

He accomplished that as a ninth grader and is likely to start for the Govs for the next three years unless he attracts some national attention.  St. Cloud is an opportunity for Moberg to showcase his talent and go national.

Sam is a good sized goalie that plays low in the crease with quick hands.  He will be an interesting player to watch at the Select Camp in June.

106. D11 (#47 Light Blue) Kyle Nelsen 5’10″/140lbs/R/Prior Lake Bantam AA-Nelson is another first year Bantam AA player and like Ben Meyers is a Top 50 pick from 2012.  Nelsen has gotten stronger in the nets in the past year and played well at the Festival.

Last season, he played for the NOW ranked #3 Prior Lake Bantam AA team that won the Bantam AA State Tourney consolation title after being upset by St. Michael/Albertville 4-3 in the quarterfinals.  The Prior Lake varsity is losing its senior goaltending and that leaves the door open for Nelsen.  Making the St. Cloud camp will turn some heads; doing well at St. Cloud will make it harder for heads to turn the other way this fall in Laker tryouts.

The one problem that looming on the horizon for the Laker Varsity is can they keep the good players (forwards and defense) that the association has developed over the past few years from  leaving Prior Lake?

00107. D16 (#41 Gold) Kade Nelson/6’1″/150lbs/L/Thief River Falls Bantam A-The Prowlers made it to the Bantam A state tourney last March.They had to travel a rocky road to get to state.They split their two D16 regular season games with East Grand Forks, lost to them in the North Regional Championship game, and finally beat the Green Wave 3-2 in the State Bantam A Consolation Championship game.With Roseau and Bemidji Associations playing AA hockey and their high schools playing Class AA hockey, the Prowlers biggest competition in the next few years is East Grand Forks.

The Thief River Falls varsity team tends to carry two goalies on the team with one (usually the more senior) getting the majority of the work load.One is graduating so the opportunity is there for Nelson to move up to varsity and good showing at St. Cloud will help his chances.

What also helps next season’s TRF varsity is that two other Prowlers’ from the Bantam A state tourney team made it to St. Cloud (Brendan Bushy and Lucas Magnusson) plus six Prowlers played on the HP-16/17 teams two weeks ago at the PIC. Still a key indicator for the coming Prowler varsity will be how these three select 15 players play at St. Cloud, especially against an Austen Long or Ryan Lindgren, select 15’s at St. Cloud that can match EGF’s Tanner Tweten or Ty Ausmus’s play.

00108. D10 (#50 Green) Spencer Olson/5’7″/140lbs/R/Anoka Bantam AA-finished third behind Elk River and Centennial, took the #3 seed to the West Regional, and lost to Elk River at the West Regional 2-1 to finish fourth.  The Anoka Varsity struggled last year in the Northwest Suberban Conference finishing in the bottom half of the league.  The Tornadoes varsity next season will have three senior and one junior goaltender returning.

Olson is likely a second year bantam and most likely will play on the JV team next season.With a good St. Cloud camp, he will have a shot at the nationals or set himself up for a visit next year to the Final 54 HP-16’s and another shot at the nationals.Odds are good, that with a good camp, he will have locked up the Anoka varsity spot in his junior and senior years.

00109. D9 (#49 Navy) Connor Poczos/6’0″/150lbs/Austin Bantam A-YHH was pleasantly surprised to see an Austin goalie make it to the Select 15 camp having just selected Austin’s peewee A goalieNoah Bawek as a top 50 pick this year.

Playing in a smaller association can have its perks.Poczos was the only goalie on the Austin Bantam A team this past season and will move up as a tenth grader to high school varsity/jv.Austin varsity’s returning goalie saw full time play last season and will likely get most of the time in the nets next year.As a junior/senior, Poczos is likely to play most of the season in the Austin nets and his nearest competitor then will be Bawek.

The Austin Varsity hockey team is a cooperative team (with Austin Pacelli) and has struggled in the Big Nine conference.That should change.The Austin Association’s bantam A was NOW ranked in the middle of the 60 or so bantam A teams in Minnesota last season (would have been ranked higher by NOW if more scores had been reported).The bantam A’s finished fourth in D9 regular season and lost a tough district playoff game to Mankato 7-6.With Poczos in the nets, Austin held their D9 opponents to a an average of 2.5 goals a game.That is important since the Big Nine high school conference consists of teams developed by D9 Associations.

Add HP-17 Section 1 selectee, Adam Maxwell (a 200lb defenseman) to players coming off a good Bantam A team that was backed by Poczos in the net; Poczos’ junior and senior years could end in a state tourney entry.

Poczos has some nimble feet and great hands and has great potential.  If he has a good camp, that will help back in Austin.

Here is a quirk for the reader, two of the top 12 15-year old goalies, Poczos and Sam Moberg, played against each other as peewee A’s two plus years ago at Northfield’s 2011 Jesse James Showdown.  Austin and Moberg’s Johnson team played for third place.  Connor’s team lost 8-2.  Wonder if they will be roommates at the St. Cloud campus in June.

00110. D6 (#61 Red) Dayton Rasmussen/6’1″/170lbs/R/Holy Family Varsity-Rasmussen was YHH’s Top Peewee A player in 2012.He showed outstanding ability, especially controlling his body to always defend the net by offering little area for a forward to sneak a puck through.He has continued to improve and showed that at the Festival by getting a ticket to St. Cloud.

Last season, as an eighth grader, Dayton jumped directly from peewee A hockey to high school varsity.He started seven games and won them all posting a save percentage of 0.909 while giving up an average of 1.6 goals a game.

With no changes happening in Section 6AA this year, the Holy Family Fire find themselves potentially being seeded the dreaded #5 or #4 for the next two years.  Hockey powerhouses, Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Wayzata, and Benilde-St. Margaret’s are staying in Section 6AA

The Fire will lose 7 seniors off last season’s squad, but have one HP-16 and three HP-17 players in the pipeline.Still Dayton will be facing some tough competition especially if  the Fire cannot get seeded fourth or higher.

00111. D16 (#43 Gold) William Woolever/5’5″/130lbs/R/Roseau Bantam AA-Woolever is a smaller goalie and when they line the top 12 up at the St. Cloud camp, Woolever will be the shortest by a good 4 inches unless he is wearing elevated skates.  He may not care; he was an eighth grader last season.  Most of the other goalies are ninth graders.  But if he plays in the nets as he did at the Festival, he could re-ignite the debate about who makes a better goalie, a big one or a small one.

At YHH, it is not the size, but it is the result and Woolever played a tough first half against D3 in the final game of the festival.

The Roseau Varsity lost in Section 8AA semifinals to Brainerd 4-3 last March.Woolever is the only Ram that played in the HP-15/16/17 programs.The Roseau Bantam AA team took second in D16 regular season play and lost to Hibbing 4-3 and Duluth East 9-3 in the North Regional to end their season.The Rams don’t have a lot of players in the pipe since Alex Strand and Zach Yon led the peewee A to the state championship in 2009.Both Strand and Yon will be seniors next year.  Next season maybe the Rams best shot at a state tourney entry for a number of years.

A good St. Cloud camp could move Woolever up, but he will likely make the varsity as a tenth grader and will likely see a lot of pucks playing in the Mariucci Conference and in Section 8AA in the coming years.