2009-10 review: goaltending

Published 2:41 pm Tuesday, April 6, 2010

2009-10 review: goaltending

There have been few constants during the Everett Silvertips’ seven seasons. Players, coaches, front-office personnel, for the most part they’ve all come and gone. The team has even transformed the way it played.

But one thing you could always rely on about Everett was you knew who the No. 1 goalie was. From Jeff Harvey to Michal Wall to Leland Irving, Everett always had a goalie among the league leaders, and there was never any doubt about who was going to get the call when it mattered most. The one exception was early last season when Everett had instability in goal, and that lasted less than three months before Tips general manager Doug Soetaert made a trade to rectify the issue.

All of which made this season so intriguing.

Everett had two No. 1-caliber goalies this season who not only split the duties right down the middle, but justified their position in the battle. Thomas Heemskerk and Kent Simpson finished 1-2 in the league in save percentage. Simpson was second in goals against average, Heemskerk third. It was the most effective goaltending tandem in the league during the regular season.

That goaltending platoon carried over into the playoffs. From game to game it was a mystery who was going to start in goal for Everett, providing the opponents, fans and media with a nice little guessing game. That guessing game was significant, too, because Heemskerk and Simpson have different goaltending styles, with Heemskerk being more acrobatic and Simpson more positionally oriented.

This was unprecedented in Everett history. Never before had a Tips team platooned its goaltending in the playoffs. There were goaltending changes, but that was based either on health issues or on poor performance by the starter. Heemskerk won Game 1 against Kelowna, then Simpson got the start in Game 2. Not only had something like this never happened before with the Tips, in Everett’s 14 playoff series an opponent has never done that, either. I’m not sure if any other team in the league platooned it’s goaltending during the playoffs this year — Swift Current, maybe?

But while the goaltending platoon carried over into the playoffs, unfortunately for the Tips the goaltending excellence didn’t. It’s not like Heemskerk and Simpson were bad against Kelowna, they weren’t. However, with the exception of Heemskerk’s performance during the first overtime of Game 4, Everett’s goalies didn’t come up with the game-changing saves. The truly unfortunate thing for Everett is the Tips probably only needed one. One big save in any of the four losses may have been enough to turn defeat into victory for the Tips, but that big save never materialized.

That being said, the Tips are never in that position in the first place if not for their goaltending.

Next: 2009-10 review: coaching