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Scott Darling is tired of being known as a first-half goalie.
The University of Maine sophomore netminder cruised through mid-December of his freshman season with an 8-3-1 record and 1.41 goals-against average, and garnered multiple weekly and monthly Hockey East Conference awards. He won just two games after that.
“When everyone talks about my freshman year it’s like, ‘Yeah, great first half,’” Darling said. “It’s like, ‘Yeah, I know. Thanks.’”
Darling could make excuses. He was thrown into the fire when his predecessor Ben Bishop left school a year early. With 19 freshmen and sophomores, UMaine was the fifth youngest team in the nation. He received just 2.21 goals per game of support. Instead, Darling shored up his technical game in the offseason and regained the enjoyment of the position he started playing at age 5.
“He really worked hard in the offseason and trained at an elite level,” said UMaine associate head coach Dan Kerluke. “He improved his on-ice abilities as well as his off-ice. I think the combination of the two has really led to him performing at an elite level this year, consistently.”
Darling’s improvement was evident in UMaine’s weekend sweep of Hockey East-leading University of New Hampshire on Feb. 5-6. After surrendering consecutive 2-0 leads to the Wildcats, Darling and Co. battled back to pick up critical wins to advance into a tie for second in the conference standings and 12th in the national polls.
“Honestly, last year I don’t think Scotty could have come back and closed the door like he did in two games in a row down 2-0,” Kerluke said. “That goes along with his maturity in the net.”
Darling is 14-4-3 in 23 starts this season, giving him the fifth-best winning percentage in the nation. He has allowed just one goal in six games, including five-straight before the holiday break. Kerluke and UMaine volunteer goaltending coach David Alexander introduced weekly goalie-oriented practice sessions this season that have helped Darling identify areas where he can take advantage of his 6-foot-6-inch frame.
“I was way too hard on myself last year,” Darling said. “I think these goalie sessions have helped me. My footwork’s gotten better. I’ve been playing out of the crease. Last year I was playing on the goal line, and when you’re as tall as me, if you can be out, you’re going to take up some space.”
Darling was slated to be Bishop’s backup last year, which he said would have been beneficial, as Bishop (6-foot-7) is similar technically and in training philosophy.
“I think we would have had fun being goalie partners and I would have learned a lot from him,” Darling said.
“They’re very tall and very athletic,” Kerluke said. “They move very well, and they take up a lot of the net.”
Aside from the Monday and Wednesday goalie practices, Darling and Alexander will spend the majority of a Sunday breaking down film and talking about everything goaltending. Darling said he favors that type of coach, a style he became accustomed to while playing for the Indiana Ice of the United States Hockey League under goalie coach Jamie Morris.
“[Morris] is a listener,” Darling said. “You can talk shop with him and get points of view, not just cut and dry, ‘This is how you play goalie.’”
Morris also trained Miami University sophomore goaltender Cody Reichard, who led the Red Hawks to the national title game last year and leads the nation in goals-against average (1.42) and winning percentage (.825), and is second in save percentage (.938). Former Boston University and current University of Wisconsin goalie Brett Bennett and University of Minnesota goalie Alex Kangas also played for the ice.
“It’s definitely a little goalie hotbed,” Darling said. “It’s kind of like the Maine of the USHL.”
Darling left the Capital District (New York) Selects of the Eastern Junior Hockey League to play in Indiana for a year and lived with Reichard the summer before the season started. He said the two are best friends and have lived and trained together every summer since.
“He’s the hardest working goalie I’ve ever seen in my life,” Darling said. “I’m waking up, he’s already been out to the field and running at 5 a.m. He’s a terrific goalie, a terrific athlete and he’s got more drive than anyone I’ve ever seen.”
Reichard is in the running for the Hobey Baker Award, and Darling said if anyone other than teammate Gustav Nyquist is going to win it, Reichard should be the one.
Darling and Reichard, along with Quinnipiac goalie Dan Clarke, live and train in North Andover, Mass., for eight weeks during the summer and teach youth goalies at Phillips Andover Academy. Darling also spends a week at the Phoenix Coyotes’ rookie camp with the team that drafted him in the sixth round (153rd overall) in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. Phoenix’s goalie coach is former NHL veteran goalie Sean Burke.
“It’s really cool having Sean Burke as your goalie guy,” Darling said. “I’m still kind of a little kid around him.”
Darling likes that there is not much “goalie clutter” in the Phoenix system, as he, Bennett and Mike Lee (St. Cloud State) are the only three drafted goalies not yet in the professional system.
“I’m very happy to be drafted by Phoenix,” Darling said. “They’re a really nice organization.”
Darling said the commitment process to UMaine happened quickly. He was not highly recruited initially because he was a third-stringer for two seasons with Capital District. Darling was offered a full scholarship to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where the Selects played their home games, but asked them to wait until he heard offers from UMaine and Northeastern University. When UMaine offered him a scholarship, Darling verbally committed on the same weekend the Black Bears were hosting Northeastern at Alfond Arena, and had to tell Northeastern coach Greg Cronin he would not be making a recruiting visit the following week.
“I actually came here when I was like 15 to see the rink and left a scouting tape on Coach Whitehead’s doorstep,” Darling said. “He never got it.”
