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A goalie’s job is not easy.
There is an old hockey adage that says, “a goaltender can be revered for making nine out of 10 saves, but if the 10th shot beats him at the wrong time, he can be seen as a goat for years.”
It takes a special breed to be a goaltender in hockey. Someone who isn’t afraid to face 100 mile-per-hour slapshots directed at his head. Someone who isn’t afraid to get in the middle of a scrum for a puck near the net. Someone who isn’t a afraid to fail.
Having one great goaltender can win you a championship. Having two can put the fear of God into opponents. Ask anyone who has faced the University of Maine men’s hockey team this year and they will all say the key to beating UMaine is getting to Frank Doyle and Jimmy Howard.
Doyle and Howard have become known as the “Two-Headed Monster” by many college hockey observers around the country because each one has the ability to beat any team by himself on any night.
It’s not a problem that UMaine coach Tim Whitehead would want to to face, but he loves to have them on his side.
“Knowing that we are going to be in every game is a huge positive for our team,” Whitehead said. “With such a young team, it’s a huge a confidence boost for the new guys to better.”
This season’s UMaine team has already surpassed many expectations. The Black Bears were picked to finish fourth in the Hockey East Preseason Coaches’ Poll, and many thought they would struggle to win home ice for the Hockey East Quarterfinals. Now the Black Bears are 17-6-1 overall and ranked fourth in the U.S. College Hockey Online Poll. UMaine is also 9-4-1 in Hockey East, good enough for second place. Not only are the Bears in the hunt for the Hockey East championship, but they are a legitimate contender for a national title as well, which no one expected at the beginning of the year.
Most of that can be attributed to the play of the goalies, who are bot ranked in the top three for goalies in NCAA Men’s Division I hockey.
Howard, after recovering from a sprained knee, which kept him out of action for a month, has taken over the national lead in goaltending from Doyle, who is now third. Howard has played in nine games with a record of 5-3-1 with a 1.55 goals against average, a .936 save percentage, and one shutout on the year. The sophomore has four shutouts in his career. Last season, he tied the single season mark for shutouts in a season with three. He shared the record with Alfie Michaud, who accomplished the feet in 1998-’99.
Last summer, Howard was drafted 65th overall in the second round by the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings.
Whitehead said that Howard is successful because of his positioning and competitive edge.
“Jimmy is a good anticipater,” Whitehead said. “He’s always one step ahead of the guy with the puck. He reads the pass and the shot very well. He’s a very instinctive player. He’s very fluid in the net. He moves with the play.”
Doyle broke the single season shutout mark that Howard shared, with his fourth shutout of the year on Jan. 16 in UMaine’s 3-0 whitewash of Massachusetts. Doyle also tied the career mark with six shutouts, which he now shares with Michaud.
This season, Doyle, a senior, in his second season of playing for UMaine, has a record of 12-3-0 for the season with a 1.70 GAA and a .926 save percentage. Doyle is currently a professional free agent and was named as one of this year’s semifinalist for the Hockey Humanitarian Award, which goes to a player in college hockey for community service activities. In 2000, former UMaine player Jim Leger won the award. This is the first time since that a Black Bear player has been nominated for the award.
“Frank always seems to be in the right position,” Whitehead said. “As a result, he makes things look extremely easy when they’re not. He has great hand-eye coordination and can make a save in a split second. He’s more compact in the net in his movement.”
Doyle plays with a hybrid style much like Ed Belfour of the Toronto Maple Leafs, while Howard is a classic butterfly goaltender in the mold of former NHL player Patrick Roy.
Despite the difference in styles, Whitehead says there is a common denominator between the two.
“They’re both very competitive,” Whitehead said. “They like to compete and they like to play. There are some goalies who don’t want to compete in practice, but these guys love to compete. They’re out there early for practice, they stay late. They both love to compete.”
Having two good goalies makes Whitehead believe that the young Black Bears can learn while still winning games.
“[The freshman] are not worried that if they make a mistake, we might lose the game because of it,” Whitehead said. “That allows them to make plays and learn from their mistakes.
“We also have a very defensive-minded team,” Whitehead said. “When guys make mistakes, we normally bail each other out.”
UMaine has been known for very strong goaltending tandems in the past. The late 1980s saw Scott King and Matt DelGuidice. In the early 1990s, the Bears rode the play of Garth Snow and Mike Dunham to a national title in 1993. Both are now starters in the NHL. In 2002, the tandem of Mike Morrison and Matt Yeats got UMaine to within an overtime goal of another national title.
This year’s tandem of Doyle, a senior from Guelph, Ontario, and Howard, a sophomore from Ogdensburg, N.Y., could get UMaine very deep into March or into April this year. A season in which many Black Bear fans considered a .500 campaign a possible success now have much higher hopes because of the “Two-Headed Monster.”
Frank Doyle: third in nation goal tending
1.70 - goals against average
.926 - save percentage
4 - shutouts
6 – career shutouts
Jimmy Howard: first in nation goal tending
1.70 - goals against average
.926 – save percentage
4 – shutouts
6 – career shutouts
