{"id":27268,"date":"2005-03-17T20:17:58","date_gmt":"2005-03-18T02:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2005\/03\/17\/from-backup-to-starter\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:56:12","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:56:12","slug":"from-backup-to-starter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2005\/03\/17\/from-backup-to-starter\/","title":{"rendered":"From Back-up to Star-ter"},"content":{"rendered":"
At the beginning of the 2004-05 season both Middlebury College and New England College had to be feeling good about their respective starting goaltending situations. For Middlebury, last season’s first-half starter, Yen I-Chen was returning with impressive statistics and an equally impressive record. Despite the loss of senior Marc Scheuer, Chen had played well during his first two seasons and looked to build on that success entering his senior season. For New England College, all-league goaltender Michael Shimek was returning for his senior season with the Pilgrims and expectations revolved around the consistently outstanding play he provided to Tom Carroll’s team during his first three seasons as the starter.<\/p>\n
And then came the season …<\/p>\n
Both goaltenders played well in spurts but inconsistent play both in goal and up front had coaches looking to “jump start” their teams to a higher level of play. A change in goalies for both Middlebury and NEC saw the emergence of two unknown goaltenders to backstop their teams through the second half of the regular season, conference playoffs, NCAA quarterfinals and now, against each other in the second national semifinal on Friday night. <\/p>\n