His purple sweater drenched with sweat, his emotions depleted and his season over, Curry College freshman goalie Shane Soderwall stepped on the scale after his team’s loss to Hobart in last year’s NCAA tournament quarterfinals.
The reading? 171 pounds.
He guessed he’d started the day above 180.
“Lost 10 pounds of water,” he said. “Yeah, I was pretty gassed. It was nuts. I think that was a one-in-a-million game, for me at least.”
The 4-3 loss in four overtimes was the second-longest game in Division 3 history, lasting until freshman defenseman Bauer Morrissey scored the winner deep in the fourth OT. The Statesmen would go on to win their second straight NCAA championship six nights later.
It ended the best Curry season in two decades and etched Soderwall’s name in the record book. The 98 saves he made tied the Division 3 record.
“Honestly, I don’t have a great recollection of looking at the stat sheets and going, ‘They’re really outshooting us,’ ” said Curry coach Peter Roundy. “But he was playing great and making some big saves. … An incredible effort by him.”
With all but two regulars back from that team that went 21-6-1 overall, there is plenty of optimism as Curry’s new season begins. Leading scorers Gage Dill (12-18-30) and Eelis Laaksonen (12-16-28) return, as well as most of the defensemen.
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Plus Soderwall, whose road to Curry might have been a bit uncommon but whose performance since arriving has been top-notch.
Growing up in suburban Chicago, he was well into his final season of juniors, with Anchorage in the NAHL, and not yet knowing his next move. Division 1 interest had been mild, with some preliminary talks with Mercyhurst and Air Force, but no offers.
He went about educating himself about Division 3. Curry established itself as a preferred choice after Christmas. The Colonels would be graduating their senior goalie, Reid Cooper, so early playing time would be a possibility. He liked the Greater Boston location and the program’s recent track record and enjoyed his conversations with Roundy.
“I felt really comfortable talking to Coach Roundy,” Soderwall said. “He said, ‘Hey, we want you to come in and play.’ It was a no-brainer from there.”
Two returning seniors got first crack at the open job, but Soderwall’s performance at practice, combined with his preparation and maturity, and his work with goalie coach Clay Adams, stood out. He shut out Wesleyan over Thanksgiving weekend and had the job from there.
Soderwall isn’t the kind of goalie who just skates onto the ice, empties his mind and stops pucks. His preparation is a key part of his game, from the routines he goes through to what he eats and drinks before games, to how much he sleeps, all of it recorded in a journal.
“I heard this quote pretty recently: ‘If you fail to prepare you’re preparing to fail,’ ” he said.
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At 6-foot-2, he’s not the biggest goalie but he’s big enough. Roundy raves about his competitiveness, his ability to take away shooters’ angles and his communication with his defense.
He finished his freshman season with a 1.59 goals-against average and .949 save percentage, helping the team craft a 12-game win streak in January and February that ended with an aberration — a 7-2 loss to Salve Regina in the semifinals of the Commonwealth Coast Conference tournament.
There would be a chance to rebound. The Colonels won at Geneseo, 2-0, in the first round of the NCAA tournament — the program’s first-ever NCAA road win.
That set up a quarterfinal rematch at reigning NCAA champion Hobart, the team that had convincingly ended Curry’s season a year earlier, 5-1, at one point scoring three times in a 35-second span. But with a more experienced team, more confidence and a new goalie, Curry was ready to change the narrative.
“We’re more on a roll this year and a confident group,” said captain Tao Ishizuka (Providence, R.I.). “We’re ready to take on every challenge.”
The Colonels needed a goal from Ishizuka with a little under seven minutes remaining in regulation to send the game to overtime tied 3-3. At that point Soderwall had stopped 49 shots, a long day’s work in itself.
It would get longer.
With Hobart outshooting Curry by a 2-to-1 margin, he made 12 saves in the first OT, 11 in the second, 13 in the third and 17 more in the fourth before Morrissey beat him with a wrist shot through a screen from the high slot.
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“As the game went on I felt like I was in the zone,” said Soderwall. “You dream of these games when you’re a young goalie — ‘blacking out’ is how I think of it.
“There’s obviously some pressure there. But when you’re so deep into the game there’s no time to think about that stuff. There’s no jitters. It’s just playing the hardest you can play and letting everything unfold.”
Soderwall was named Goalie of the Year and Rookie of the Year in the CCC, and a finalist for the Joe Concannon Award. He spent the summer locally, working with Adams, a director with Stop It Goaltending who is also a scout for the Utah Hockey Club, so he can come back even better.
“I love to compete,” he said. “I hate getting scored on. I think it’s something every goalie has, that drive to compete and be the best you can every day.”
