Goalies who need to be better
They are in their third full year in the Ontario Hockey League and as no. 1 goalies they need to be better than they have been thus far this season.
JOSEPH RAAYMAKERS, Soo Greyhounds. It’s not as though the 1998 birth-year netminder has been a major disappointment this season. But with a 6-4-1 record on a Soo team that has a 10-5-1 mark, Raaymakers hasn’t really stood out. And his 3.45 goals against average and .892 save percentage aren’t numbers that take contending teams deep into a season.
CONNOR HICKS, Flint Firebirds. As the center piece in an early-season trade that sent holdout forward Will Bitten to the Hamilton Bulldogs, the 1997 birth-year backstop has struggled on a Flint team that generally out-shoots the opposition. While Hicks has a 3-3-1 record, his other numbers are not worthy of a no. 1 goalie — 4.31 goals against average and .847 save percentage. By comparison, Flint’s other goalie, 1997 birth-year rookie Garrett Forrest, has much-better numbers — 4-3-0 record, 2.62 goals against average and .909 save percentage on a team that is in eighth place and is above the .500 mark in a hotly-contested Western Conference.
LEO LAZAREV, Ottawa 67’s. Given the starting job outright to start the season, the 1997 birth-year goalie has not been very good thus far and has played a factor in Ottawa’s 5-8-2 record, which has the 67’s in ninth place in the Eastern Conference. Lazarev’s numbers are not laser-like — 4-6-0 record, 4.32 goals against average, .875 save percentage.
Without question, all three goalies — Raaymakers, Hicks and Lazarev — are better than their numbers with a past to prove it. But the present is now — and so is the need to play up to expectations.
PHOTO: Soo Greyhounds goalie Joseph Raaymakers. (Photo by Terry Wilson.)