Vetri made the right call by going to Lowell
In the fall of 2003, Peter Vetri was ready to answer the phone call he had awaited his entire life.
For as long as he could remember, the goalie from Windham, N.H., had watched Boston University on television and at Walter Brown Arena. That fall, Vetri, who was playing for the Williams Lake TimberWolves of the British Columbia Hockey League, was told by then-BU assistant Brian Durocher to expect a call soon. The Terriers were about to offer the Lawrence Academy graduate a scholarship for the 2004-05 season, as well as a ticket home to celebrate Thanksgiving and the signing.
Several days later, Vetri's phone rang.
"Sure enough, I got the call, and it was not about my plane tickets going home," Vetri said.
Instead, it was a call informing Vetri that BU had signed Karson Gillespie, a goalie from the Bonnyville Pontiacs of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. Vetri was shocked, but during BU's courtship, he had also been talking regularly to UMass-Lowell coach Blaise MacDonald and his assistant, Ken Rausch. Spurned by BU, Vetri committed to Lowell.
This season, Gillespie has played in seven games, totaling 49 minutes 17 seconds of action, recording an 8.52 goals-against average and .741 save percentage. Meanwhile, Vetri (9-2-2), who made 18 saves in Lowell's 0-0 tie against Brown Tuesday, boasts a 2.11 GAA and .919 save percentage. Lowell's offense is clicking and the River Hawks (13-5-3, 4-5-2 Hockey East) have the most potent power play in the country, but MacDonald credits Vetri with sparking the club's 12-game unbeaten streak.
"It's no secret in Hockey East that when a team's playing well, their goaltender's playing well," said MacDonald, who, when he was a River Hawk assistant, helped convince current NHL goalie Dwayne Roloson to attend Lowell. "We've gone through a stretch here the last few years where we've played well as a team and our goaltenders have played pretty well, but we've just given up one or two bad goals at the wrong time. But now Peter Vetri's been playing very, very well and our team's confidence has been amplified."
Entering January, the River Hawks were 9-0 against nonconference opponents -- the best run in the nation -- but they were in last place in Hockey East. Against league competition, Lowell was 0-5-2, including an ugly 7-2 loss to BU Nov. 19. But in the third period of that game, MacDonald replaced starting goalie Chris Davidson with Vetri, a curious move considering that under his catching glove, the freshman's ring finger was in a splint.
During a drill in practice three days earlier, Vetri tried to stop a shot from the point. The shot hit him in the chest, but when Vetri brought his hands together to settle the puck, he smashed his catching glove into the back of his blocker, breaking his finger. Vetri, who had missed a week earlier in the season with the flu, thought he was done for some time. But with third goalie John Yaros sidelined with a broken collarbone, Vetri had to play through the pain when he got the third-period nod.
Busted finger or not, Vetri has played in all but one game since that BU match. Since Nov. 23, when Vetri made 27 stops in a 3-3 tie against New Hampshire, Lowell has a 9-0-3 record, including four straight league wins. Once Hockey East's bottom-feeder, Lowell is now in fifth place. MacDonald praises the technical improvement in Vetri's game, citing his aggressiveness, puckhandling, and quickness, but he gives the freshman credit for honing his mental approach as well. In practice, Vetri steams when he allows a goal, which is not always a desirable trait in games. Now, Vetri doesn't hang his head when he allows a goal -- which doesn't happen very often anyway.
"It's everything," MacDonald said of good goaltending. "What does it mean for the Red Sox when Curt Schilling takes the mound? Your chest is a little bigger. You're very confident."
For Vetri, who admired the styles of former Terriers goalies Michel Larocque and J.P. McKersie, a straightforward question during his official visit to BU might have foreshadowed his collegiate destination. When coach Jack Parker asked him why he wanted to attend BU, Vetri couldn't come up with a reason.
"I was overridden with wanting to go there my whole life," Vetri said. "It was what I was supposed to do, but I never had a reason to go there. Them taking someone else was the best thing for me."
Powerful stuff
After BC's sweep of BU last weekend, Parker was especially peeved at his team's 1-for-16 performance on the power play.
"A big part is that BC's the best team in the nation killing penalties," Parker said. "Give them credit. But we played into it by not making a pass and being inept at the point."
While some teams prefer a passive approach, shrinking its box of defenders and collapsing in the slot, the Eagles, who have staved off 90.8 percent of opposing power plays (the top rate in college hockey), employ an aggressive penalty kill that encourages ineptness by pressuring opponents at the blue line with their quick forwards. Players such as Patrick Eaves and Ryan Shannon regularly block shots and intercept passes, and as a result opposing teams have difficulty advancing the puck deep in the BC zone.
On the rare occasions that teams approach the BC net, the other penalty killers quickly converge on the puck and take away passing lanes.
"We're very good at putting pressure on the puck at different points of the zone," said BC coach Jerry York. "It's not just the first pressure point. Teams have to make two, three, four crisp passes."
Lowell, which has the nation's top-ranked power play (25.6 percent conversion rate), went 2 for 10 on the man-advantage in a 3-2 loss to BC Oct. 19. The River Hawks' top unit of Ben Walter, Elias Godoy, Danny O'Brien, Andrew Martin, and Cleve Kinley has scored 21 power-play goals. Walter, who has scored 19 goals this season, said an aggressive penalty kill such as BC's actually plays into his club's favor, as the River Hawks prefer to grind down low instead of using their point men to blast away from the blue line.
To counter an aggressive kill, Walter said teams should move a forward higher along the half boards to open up space down low. MacDonald said clubs also need clean entry with speed into the offensive zone, creating support for the puck when it approaches a penalty killer. Teams can rap the puck hard along the boards and flood the zone, or change sides through the neutral zone to relieve pressure on the puck.
"If you're aggressive up high, you can't be too aggressive down low," MacDonald said. "That leaves the middle of the rink open. You can get the puck into the high slot and create a two-on-one down low."
Texas two-step
When Rensselaer's Andrew Martin faced off against Cornell's David McKee last Saturday, it marked the first time -- at least that Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna can remember -- that two goalies from Texas started in the same ECACHL game. McKee, an Irving native who has developed into one of the league's top netminders, made 14 stops in the 5-0 win, while Plano's Martin made 18 saves while allowing three goals in two periods. On Dec. 8, RPI beat Providence, 4-3. Friars goalie Tyler Sims is from Fort Worth, but neither he nor Martin played in the game.
