Knapp making most of his time between the pipes

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By Pete Conrad, Staff Writer 11:53 AM Thursday, January 28, 2010

OXFORD — Here’s a curious fact: Miami University’s hockey team has the leading goaltender in the nation and in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, and they’re not the same person.

Sophomore Cody Reichard is the national leader with a goals-against average of 1.50 per game, but it’s sophomore teammate Connor Knapp who sits atop the goalie list in CCHA-only games with a microscopic average of 1.13.

That puts Miami coach Enrico Blasi in the envious position of getting to pick and choose which blue chipper he wants to use on a given night, the goalie who was named National Player of the Week earlier this season (Reichard) or the goalie who has been drafted by the Buffalo Sabres (Knapp).

Those are decisions he faces tonight and Saturday, Jan. 29-30, when the top-ranked RedHawks face the Western Michigan Broncos in a two-game series at Steve Cady Arena.

The flexibility with goalies might put Blasi and the RedHawks in a good place, but it’s not always easy for the goalies.

“It’s obviously tough,” said Knapp, a 6-foot-5 native of York, N.Y. “Every goalie who wants to go somewhere in hockey wants to play every night.”

Reichard has seen the majority of action, having started 16 of Miami’s 26 games, but it was Knapp who recorded his third shutout of the season last Saturday night in the RedHawks’ 5-0 victory at Alaska.

Knapp had not played, however, in the previous three games.

“You never want to get used to that, to accept the fact that you’re going to be watching games,” he said.

But that also makes him more hungry and sharper, Knapp said.

“If I don’t play, I come back stronger the next day in practice, trying to earn my job back, and I know it’s the same with Cody,” Knapp pointed out. “At the end of our four years here we’ll both be better for it.

“There are some goalies who are having good years who are the only goalies on their team who are going to play,” he said. “For them it’s harder to stay sharp.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.