AMHERST — Greg Carvel thought Ryan Wischow would eventually be his No. 1 goalie. But the new UMass hockey coach wanted to make sure the freshman, who’d committed to him at St. Lawrence and followed him to Amherst, proved himself.
As the season approaches it’s halfway point, Carvel said Wischow is growing into a top-light goalie.
“He’s starting to separate himself from the other guys. That was the hope. We brought him here thinking he’d be the No. 1, but he had to earn it,” Carvel said. “We think we’ve given the goalies enough of a chance to show what they are and now we think Ryan gives us a better chance.”
Wischow, who’ll likely be in net when the Minutemen play UConn in Hartford, Connecticut, Friday at 6:30 p.m., said he’s gaining confidence as the season progresses.
“Tips and screens is the big thing I need to focus on — finding tips through screens in traffic. Other than that it hasn’t been too bad,” he said. “The pace is a little bit quicker. We’re getting a lot better defensively.”
Wischow is 3-4-2 overall with a 2.60 goals against average and a 90.9 save percentage. He said his 3-0 shutout over Colorado College in the season opener gave him an early foundation of confidence.
“The first time I played I was nervous, which turned into excitement,” he said. “We got a big win and that’s really helped me for the rest of the season.”
Wischow said he still feels the need to prove himself.
“I haven’t played a top opponent yet. You gain a lot more confidence every game you play. I can see it on film too. I’m letting pucks come to me. At the beginning of the year I was trying to go get pucks. I’m just getting more comfortable and get more confidence.”
Without hesitation, Carvel gives the credit for identifying and developing Wischow to assistant coach Jared DeMichiel. Since his time at St. Lawrence, Carvel has always had an assistant coach who is essentially his goalie coordinator.
Having a full-time assistant coach serve as a goalie coach is a little unusual in college hockey. Many teams, including UMass in previous years, use part-time goalie coaches who are periodically only at practice. At St. Lawrence, which is in rural northern New York near the Canadian border, a qualified part-time goalie coach wasn’t feasible.
“Where I was before it was tough to get a volunteer goalie guy,” Carvel said. “It’s nice to have a guy every day here with your goalie. I literally don’t worry about the goalie. I take that off my plate. That works better for me that way.”
DeMichiel was an outstanding goalie at Rochester Institute of Technology, helping to lead RIT to the 2010 Frozen Four. In the same season he led Division I with 27 victories.
He likes the responsibility Carvel provides.
“He’s great,” DeMichiel said. “You know what’s expected of you and you go and do it.”
DeMichiel has high hopes for Wischow and was impressed with how he played in two games against Notre Dame last week.
“As a freshman he’s definitely made some good strides. He’s getting some confidence and he’s definitely getting a little swag to his game,” he said. “He’s playing well and keeping us in games. He was rewarded with a W Friday and I thought he played pretty well on Saturday, we just couldn’t find the back of the net.”
Wischow said having a goalie coach on staff is valuable.
“When I went on recruiting trips, what was really important to me and should be important to all goalies is having someone on staff, who knows what they’re talking about and played at this level,” Wischow said. “He’s someone I can talk to because he’s been in every situation possible. It’s probably 30 percent physical and 70 percent mental. To relate to it is tough. You have to have a goalie. It’s tough even talking to my parents after a game trying to explain what I’m going through. It’s such a confidence based position, such a trust based position, you need to have somebody that really played that position to understand.”
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage