MSU hockey might use two-goalie rotation
EAST LANSING -- Michigan State coach Tom Anastos plans to give junior goaltender Ed Minney and freshman John Lethemon playing time early in the season. One could emerge as the starter, or Anastos left open the possibility of splitting weekend series between the two.
Anastos, speaking at MSU hockey media day Wednesday at Munn Ice Arena, credited Minney for the way he handled the previous two seasons as the backup to All-America Jake Hildebrand.
Minney, from Wind Gap, Pa., didn’t play in any regular-season games as a freshman in 2014-15. His only action came in the final two periods of a 4-1 exhibition over the U.S. National Team Development Program.
Minney played in four games last season and had a 3.34 goals-against average and .899 save percentage.
“I’ve really watched him grow in a lot of ways in his first two years here, even though he’s had limited playing time,” Anastos said of Minney, who is 6 feet 5, 197 pounds. “But I thought he handled that role real well and developed into a bit of a leader on our team.”
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Anastos cautioned Minney about going home for the summer thinking he automatically would step into the starting role when he returned.
“He came back in excellent shape,” Anastos said. “He made real good progress in his body composition. I think he’s looked pretty darn good so far. We haven’t had a great opportunity up until now to get a great look.”
Lethemon (6-2, 190) is from Northville. He played the past two seasons for the Chicago Steel in the U.S. Hockey League. He helped Farmington win the Division 3 state title in 2012-13 with a 1.99 GAA and a .938 save percentage. Bill Newton, the late brother of MSU assistant coach Tom Newton, was Lethemon’s high school coach.
“He’ll have a chance to compete for time,” Anastos said of Lethemon. “You can see him getting acclimated at this level. He’s always made big steps at each level of hockey he’s played. And so I’m kind of anxious to see how he does.”
Minney and Lethemon likely will start a game each when the Spartans open the regular season with a weekend series at Lake Superior State on Oct. 14-15.
“I’d like to see both guys get some playing time early in the season so they can gain some experience,” Anastos said. “I know they’re competing hard. Both have real good work habits. It’s too early to tell, but as they gain experience, we should have a real good situation in goal. That’s what I would expect.”
Anastos will have to have some patience with whoever is in net and with his team in general. There are 11 freshmen on the squad.
“We’re going to have to show patience and deal with mistakes and inexperience so we can get guys experience,” Anastos said. “I’m talking about our team across the board. Our defense for sure because it’s youthful.”
MSU was 17-16-2 in 2014-15, 10-23-4 last season.
Anastos doesn’t regret giving Minney more playing time the past two seasons, in part because Hildebrand was the team’s best player.
“Two years ago, (Hildebrand) was playing out of his mind,” Anastos said. “We were one game out from winning the Big Ten. How do you justify not playing your best player?”
“And even last year, given our numbers on defense, we were playing sometimes four guys and five guys, we just had no depth back there.”
Contact George Sipple: gsipple@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@georgesipple.