Former Blake goalie Kent Patterson, who has played for Cedar Rapids of the USHL the past two seasons, has committed to the Gophers for this upcoming season.

He had hernia surgery last fall and did not play until early December this season, but had solid numbers. He was 10-6 with a 2.49 goals-against average and a .912 save percentage.

The previous season, he was considered one of the USHL’s top rookie goalies and had a 2.91 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage.

The Colorado Avalanche took took him in the fourth round of the 2007 NHL draft. He was the 113th pick overall and the youngest player taken. His B-Day, 9/15/89, was the age cutoff date.  

He will turn 19 this September.

Patterson played at Blake, a private school in Minneapolis, as a freshman and sophomore before leaving for the USHL.

“He has top-end potential in the view of many,” Blake coach John Hamre said. “When he played for me he was a special high school goaltender. I have not seen him for two years in the USHL, but he had an outstanding World Juniors team tryout.”

He suffered a groin injury on the last day of that tryout last summer. Later it was discovered he had a hernia and needed surgery.

“He’s a tremendous athlete, very focused,” said Hamre, who had lunch with Patterson on Tuesday. “He is committed to hockey and he is a great kid.”

Patterson is 6-1, 180. So his frame is similar to that of Alex Kangas, the freshman goalie who played so well for the Gophers this season.

Patterson will come in as Kangas’ backup, but will probably get a chance to show what he can do.

He is the 11th recruit in the 2008-09 recruiting class, which already was rated the nation’s best by the Red Line Report. He just makes it stronger.

Gophers coach Don Lucia had said recently he wanted to add two goalies, one on scholarship [that has to be Patterson] and one as a walk-on.

So the Gophers, if they haven’t found him already already, may still add another goalie to fill senior Brent Solei’s role. He was the team’s practice goalie for four seasons. Filling that spot is not nearly as critical as finding a back-up goalie. Looks like the U did well on that task.Â

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 11:26 pm and is filed under Gophers men's hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.