APRIL 2004 TOP TEN

1.  Bryan McCready          66      Oshawa, Ontario
2.  Justin Deonarine        65      Toronto, Ontario
    Tom Mascioli            65      Yonkers, New York
4.  Mark Calandra           63      Ipswitch, Massachusetts
5.  Jason Kurylo            48      New Westminster, British Columbia
6.  Gilles Carmel           47      San Diego, California
7.  Realto Margarino        45
8.  David Zetterman         42      Stockholm, Sweden
9.  Paul Branchaud          37
10. Bill Clare              26
GOALTENDER TRIVIA YEAR NINE WEEK TWENTY-THREE (Answers due 10pm MST 04/10/03):
TWO-POINT QUESTION: With the retirement of Patrick Roy, name the active goaltender with the greatest number of career Stanley Cup playoff victories.
CORRECT ANSWER: Currently, Martin Brodeur and Ed Belfour are tied with eighty-four victories apiece. Both are far behind Roy's league record of 151, although Brodeur certainly has the time to catch him if he continues to play for a good team.

THREE-POINT QUESTION: Name the last goaltender to win the Stanley Cup (as a starting goalie) without having had prior National Hockey League playoff experience. (Jean-Sebastien Giguere came just one game short last spring!)
CORRECT ANSWER: At the time Patrick Roy took the ice for the 1986 Stanley Cup playoffs, his major league experience consisted of a mere forty-eight regular-season games. Twenty games later, Roy and the Canadiens were the champions of the National Hockey League world.

FIVE-POINT QUESTION: The St. Louis Blues extended an impressive streak of consective seasons qualifying for the Stanley Cup playoffs this year. Name the number-one goaltender for the Blues the last time that they failed to make the playoffs (I'll accept either of two possible answers).
CORRECT ANSWER: The spring of 1979 was the last time St. Louis fans have had to go without the extra excitement generated by playoff action. Ed Staniowski was marginally the number-one goaltender over Phil Myre (both played thirty-nine games). The following year, the club reclaimed Mike Liut from the defunct World league, and the rest is history.

BONUS QUESTION: Name all active goaltenders who have won a Stanley Cup as a starting goaltender.
CORRECT ANSWER: Counting Dominik Hasek (2002), who by all accounts intends to return to action next year, there are four. The others are Martin Brodeur (1995, 2000, 2003), Ed Belfour (1999) and Chris Osgood (1998).

PICTORIAL QUESTION: Identify the goaltender in the following picture (click on the image for a closer look):

CORRECT ANSWER: This is from the Devils' Cup celebration last spring, and the goaltender in question is three-time Cup champion Martin Brodeur.

GOALTENDER TRIVIA YEAR NINE WEEK TWENTY-FOUR (Answers due 10pm MST 04/18/03):
TWO-POINT QUESTION: Last week, this American Hockey League netminder became the first North American professional hockey goaltender to score an overtime goal. Name him.
CORRECT ANSWER: On April 11, the Philadelphia Phantoms' Antero Niittymaki was credited with a shorthanded overtime goal against the Hershey Bears. On the final day of the AHL's regular season, the Bears needed a victory to qualify for the Calder Cup playoffs, and were undoubtedly nervous when the game went to an extra session. A pulled Phil Sauve and an errant Shane Willis pass conspired to give the Phantoms the empty-net winner, credited to Niittymaki.

THREE-POINT QUESTION: Name the last goaltender to win every game his team played in the Stanley Cup playoffs (obviously winning the Cup in the process).
CORRECT ANSWER: The 1960 Montreal Canadiens, backed by Jacques Plante, won their fifth consecutive Cup in dominating fashion, sweeping both of their series in a total of eight games. Plante was in net for all, recording three shutouts and a 1.35 goals-against average.

FIVE-POINT QUESTION: Prior to Andrew Raycroft, name the last goaltender to record a shutout in his National Hockey League postseason debut.
CORRECT ANSWER: After Bob Essensa started (and lost) game one of the top-seeded Detroit Red Wings' first-round series against eighth-seeded San Jose, Chris Osgood was given the call on April 20, 1994. Osgood stopped twenty-two Sharks shots to earn the 4-0 victory; unfortunately for Osgood, Essensa and the rest of the Red Wings, the rest of the series didn't go as well.

BONUS QUESTION: In 1976-77, the Montreal Canadiens lost just one regular season game at their home rink. Which goaltender earned the win in that game?
CORRECT ANSWER: On the day before Halloween, 1976, leave to the goaltender with one of the most famous masks to steal the show. The Boston Bruins, with Gerry Cheevers in net making seventeen saves, knocked off the defending Cup-champion Canadiens by a 4-3 tally. Ken Dryden was in net for the home team.

PICTORIAL QUESTION: Identify the goaltender in the following picture (click on the image for a closer look):

CORRECT ANSWER: This would be the second of three goaltenders the Vancouver Canucks would use in their series against Calgary this spring, Johan Hedberg. For the record, I feel that Vancouver coach Marc Crawford gave Hedberg the short end of the stick in the series, and I can't imagine him being back with the Canucks next year.

GOALTENDER TRIVIA YEAR NINE WEEK TWENTY-FIVE (Answers due 10pm MST 04/25/04):
TWO-POINT QUESTION: Prior to Ed Belfour and Nikolai Khabibulin in this year's first-round series against Ottawa and the Islanders, respectively, name the last goaltender to record three shutouts in a single postseason series.
CORRECT ANSWER: You'd think that it wouldn't happen too often, but in this day and age of defensive dominance, it most certainly has. Martin Brodeur turned the trick in last spring's Stanley Cup Finals, shutting out Anaheim in Games 1, 2 and 7 en route to the Cup win.

THREE-POINT QUESTION: Prior to Vancouver this spring, name the last time a National Hockey League team has used three goaltenders in a single playoff series.
CORRECT ANSWER: In 1999, the two-time-defending-champion Detroit Red Wings acquired veteran Bill Ranford to back up Chris Osgood for their playoff run. After Osgood backed the Wings to a first-round series win over Anaheim, Osgood injured his right knee and Ranford was the starter when the Wings would face off against the Colorado Avalanche in the conference semifinals. Ranford was stellar in the first two games in Denver, but faltered in Games Three and Four back at Joe Louis Arena, being replaced by Norm Maracle in both defeats. Osgood returned for Game Five, but it was too late as the Avs rolled past Detroit in six games.

FIVE-POINT QUESTION: Name the last time a National Hockey League team has used three goaltenders in a single playoff game (yes, it has happened).
CORRECT ANSWER: The Washington Capitals' Jim Carey had a strong rookie campaign in the lockout-shortened 1995 National Hockey League season, but struggled in the club's first-round series against Pittsburgh (don't the Caps and Pens play every spring?) On May 16, with Washington up three games to two, Carey started Game Six but was not sharp. In came Olaf Kolzig, who promptly tore cartilage in his right knee. Carey came back in; however, the Caps also had rookie Byron Dafoe in the building. Carey suffered a mysterious injury after the second period, allowing Dafoe to play the final frame. Even with all of these manoeuvres, the Caps lost, 7-1, and lost the series to the Penguins.

BONUS QUESTION: Name the only National Hockey League goaltender to allow a penalty shot goal that was later disallowed.
CORRECT ANSWER: On March 28, 1987, Calgary's Joe Mullen scored on a penalty shot against the Los Angeles Kings, with Al Jensen in net. However, before the shot was taken, the Kings' Bernie Nicholls protested the curve of Mullen's stick. The measurement was taken after the goal was scored, the stick was found to be illegal, and the goal was disallowed.

PICTORIAL QUESTION: Identify the goaltender in the following picture (click on the image for a closer look):

CORRECT ANSWER: The only netminder to be named a finalist for the 2004 Hobey Baker Memorial Award, this is Brown University's Yann Danis, now with Montreal's farm club in Hamilton.

GOALTENDER TRIVIA YEAR NINE WEEK TWENTY-SIX (Answers due 10pm MDT 05/09/04):
TWO-POINT QUESTION: This goaltender, who recently won the National Hockey League's Roger Crozier award for highest regular-season save percentage, has been serving as a colour commentator on American television broadcasts during the postseason. Name him.
CORRECT ANSWER: Minnesota's Dwayne Roloson appears to be following in the footsteps of many other former goaltenders who have segued their way into the TV booth.

THREE-POINT QUESTION: Florida's Roberto Luongo was recently named a finalist for this year's Vezina Trophy, awarded to the National Hockey League's top goaltender. Moreover, many (including myself) feel that he's the odds-on favourite to take home the award, and that's a rarity for a non-playoff goalie. Name the last Vezina Trophy winner to win the award while toiling for a non-playoff squad.
CORRECT ANSWER: You have to go back quite a way to find this one! Way back, seventy-three seasons ago, the New York Americans' Roy Worters won the Vezina Trophy with a league-leading goals-against average of 1.61 and eight shutouts (back then, the Vezina was awarded to the goaltender(s) who allowed the fewest goals in the regular season). Unfortunately for Worters, he didn't score any goals of his own, and the Americans went a middling 18-16-10 en route to a seat in front of the television (okay, maybe not) for the playoffs.

FIVE-POINT QUESTION: This National Hockey League goaltender's first twenty-one postseason appearances were against the same opponent. Name him.
CORRECT ANSWER: It's amazing when you finally notice something for the first time, and as a result, I really like this trivia questions. Until this spring, Tommy Salo's playoff experience came against Dallas (four games, 1999), Dallas (five games, 2000), Dallas (six games, 2001), and Dallas (six games, 2003). The string was finally broken when Salo replaced David Aebischer against San Jose in this year's playoffs, although it's interesting to note that the Avalanche's first-round opponent was...Dallas. Spooky.

BONUS QUESTION: Name the National Hockey League goaltender commonly credited with inventing the "cheater", the extension of the goaltender's catching glove (on the thumb-side) used to increase the glove's overall blocking area.
CORRECT ANSWER: I've always marveled at the fact that the hockey community allows us goaltenders to get away with using something called a "cheater". Regardless, common hockey folklore tells us that Toronto's Mike Palmateer was the first to use such a device in a professional hockey game.

PICTORIAL QUESTION: Identify the goaltender in the following picture (click on the image for a closer look):

CORRECT ANSWER: This would be France's starting goaltender for the 2004 IIHF World Championships, Cristobal Huet. Huet actually faced a stern challenge from teammate Fabrice Lhenry in this spring's tournament, although both would have been better-served if they could score their own goals (the country didn't score in the first five games of the spring).