The clues can often be found in its artwork.

In some respects, hockey players, especially goaltenders, are some of the most hidden figures in sports, considering the amount of equipment that prevents the world from seeing the players within.

While many things have changed in the world of hockey, with the masks eventually becoming helmets, seeing them painted and carefully designed is nothing new for the recent goaltending generations.

Since the initiation of the goalie mask by Montreal Canadian’s Jacques Plante in a 1959 game against the New York Rangers, goaltenders have utilized the opportunity to show their colorful personality on its canvas.

Doug Favell, goaltender of the 1971 Philadelphia Flyers, became a catalyst for the painted mask after transforming his protector for the Halloween night game against the LA Kings. Favell told his trainer, Frank Lewis, during the team’s morning skate that it’d be kind of cool to paint his mask orange to go along with their orange jerseys, replicating the great pumpkin for Halloween night.

Gerry Cheevers, many have argued, was the first to “design” a mask, taking teammate Favell’s painted idea and upping creativity to the next level, with what fans have voted on as the best mask of all time. Cheevers’s top tier mask was based on putting stitch marks over the white canvas every time he got hit in the mask by a puck.

The masked men have always been known for their “interesting”, personalities and with the help of Ilya Bryzgalov’s performance on NHL 24/7, we’ve seen that not much has changed.

With such bizarre or colorful personalities behind the mask, it was only a matter of time before it leaked through onto the blank canvas that prevented an abundance of stitches and missing teeth.

However, it’s not necessarily about the things you see on the helmet, but the psychological foundation on which it was selected. Throughout hockey, relatives, music, animals, and essentially anything of personal importance or that looks cool has been plastered on the goaltenders’ canvas.

“When I decided to make my move to goalie, that’s one of the first things I looked forward to,” SCSU goaltender Charlie Lindgren said. “It’s something that every kid looks forward to, designing their equipment … especially with helmets; it’s a part of you.”

“With the goalie mask, you’re allowed to put your own personal touch on it; I think that’s something that started… goalies started wearing the mask,” SCSU goaltender Ryan Faragher said. “We’re different than the rest of the players on our team and we get to show it in our designs.”

“It’s something every kid looks forward to; it’s nice to look good when you’re out there,” SCSU goaltender Joseph Phillippi said with a smile.

No different than the generations preceding them is the SCSU men’s goaltenders Faragher, Lindgren, and Phillippi, all of which remember their first painted helmet like it was yesterday.

“I was 12, playing for the Minnesota Iceman,” Lindgren said. “I did a light blue helmet with a panther clawing its way out.”

“I was in ninth grade (when I got my first painted mask),” Phillippi said. “My dad told me that if I got on the honor roll three-out-of-four quarters that he’d get my helmet painted.”

“I didn’t have any say in my first helmet,” Faragher said. “My dad did it for a Christmas present when I was 13, my nickname was Rhino so we had a rhino on it… it was pretty cool, I was really excited.”

Goalies have often faced the challenge of finding a balance between glorifying and representing their team, all the while mixing in their personal passions into the design. Faragher seems to have found that balance with his current cage, keeping those things and people he loves as close to his mind as possible.

The back of Faragher’s helmet. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

“On my helmet I’ve got the school crest on the top, and mine’s covered in ice, making it look like it’s breaking through,” Faragher explained. “I’ve got a skeleton-type guy on my left side. It’s from one of my favorite bands, Gojira, off their “The Way of All Flesh” album cover.”

“On the back I put both my grandmothers’ initials,” Faragher said. ”They both passed away before I came to college and without them I wouldn’t be here.”

Along with the initials for his grandmothers, adding more to honor his family, Faragher placed a clover next to his grandma Patricia and a rose for his grandma Rose.

Lining the top of Faragher’s back palette is the team motto ‘All In’, while at the bottom is the name of a song he and his friend wrote together titled “187”.

“For my helmets here on out I’ll always have something to do with
my family and music,” Faragher said. “I still have my first helmet at home, and I’ve had everyone since then.”

The process of creating these works of art is a challenge for both the keeper and the artist, some of whom have never met the creator, and have to use photos and imagination to try and envision what the other is attempting. That’s the case for Lindgren and Gilders Design custom paint company, having never met, yet producing a design that fits the needs and abilities of both parties.

Charlie Lindgren’s mask (Gilders Design)

Lindgren’s current helmet has the phrase, “St Cloud Proud”, “All In”, which has been the team’s motto, and a big SCSU logo across the top crest, mimicking that of the Habs. Lindgren also got creative with the hidden, or special effect element of his mask, swapping the husky you often see as a player, and creating a “Husky goalie” on the right ear palette of the helmet.

“I told them the layout as much as I could, referring them to Henrik Lundqvist (goaltender for the New York Rangers) and showed them photos of where I wanted each thing,” Lindgren explained. “It’s tough when you haven’t met the guy who does it, but it turned out great.”

Gilders design seems to have taken over as the favorite of the men’s SCSU goaltenders, a company that has been familiar for their work across the OHL and NCAA college hockey world.

“I’ve seen Gilders’ work on guys in the OHL and around college guys,” Faragher said. “I liked the way he did stuff, so I’ll probably try him out again.”

Based out of London, Ontario, Gilders Design has been in the custom paint service for over 15 years and is a factory authorized painter for Bauer, Eddy Masks, Masked Marvel, and Warwick Masks.

For most, the design process is a give-and-take arrangement, bouncing ideas off one another until both the creator and keeper have an accord. For others, like Phillippi, it’s an opportunity to create a design individually and present it to the designee for approval.

Joe Phillippi’s mask (Gilders Design)

“I’m kind of an artsy guy myself, so I like to design my helmets,” Phillippi said. “I come up with the designs and colors and see what my dad and brother think about it, and I go from there.”

Phillippi’s current design has a military theme, swapping the digital/pixelated camouflage colors with SCSU’s red, black and white, that run up the center panel from brow to the top/end of the front cage. With the military theme, on the left ear panel Phillippi has the popular image of “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima”, with the soldiers hoisting the country’s colors. On the “Phlip” side the SCSU Husky engulfs the right ear panel, while on his chin the nickname “Flip” is sprayed in white, lined with SCSU black and red.

While many fans watch the games without knowing the man inside the mask, if they were to take the time to examine the works of art, chances are they may have a better idea of just who inhabits it. While being peppered with shots, the painted images on their helmets often mean just as much, if not more, than the blue paint below their blades.

Originally published in St. Cloud State’s University Chronicle. Republished with permission.

The post Who is Behind that Mask? appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Nic Dowd’s overtime winner earns St. Cloud State a date with Minnesota in region final.

SAINT PAUL — Nic Dowd score the game-winning goal 17:21 into overtime and Ryan Faragher made 39 saves, including 17 in the second period alone, as St. Cloud State overcame a huge deficit in shots on goal in regulation to defeat Notre Dame 4-3 and advance to Sunday’s NCAA West Region Final.

The third-seeded Huskies will face the tournament’s No. 1 seed, Minnesota, at 6:30 p.m. at Xcel Energy Center.  The Gopher beat Robert Morris University 7-3 earlier on Saturday.

Dowd stripped Notre Dame’s Steven Fogarty of the puck at center ice and the loose puck went to David Morley whose backhand pass hit Dowd in stride as he crossed the Irish blue line. The Hobey Baker Award finalist rifled a wrist shot from the top of the left circle which caught a piece of Irish defenseman Kevin Lind’s stick on its way behind Notre Dame goaltender Steven Summerhayes for goal No. 22 of the year.

“I kind of lost mobility in my entire body after that one went in so it is tough for me to say what I was trying to do there,” Dowd said. “At this point, any shot is a good shot and it was pretty fortunate for it to have hit his stick and then find the top shelf.”

“Once I got the puck, I just heard Dowd yelling as he was flying down the wall there and I just passed it to him,” Morley said. “Then stood there and watched him work his magic there”

Motzko said the Huskies never changed a thing from a tactical standpoint and had no answer to what turned the tide in overtime to go from being outshot 36-12 through 60 minutes to a 16-6 edge in the extra session.

“The real question is why were we so quiet in the first three?” Motzko said.  “We scored quite a few goals this year and we have a team capable of doing so. In overtime it just started to work. Why overanalyze it?”

“We’re obviously very disappointed,” Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson said. “I thought we played very good hockey for sixty minutes and we changed our game in overtime and gave St. Cloud a lot of life.”

Notre Dame never led the game at any stage thanks to the stellar performance of Faragher. The junior goaltender made several jaw-dropping saves on the night but saved his best for overtime when he denied Notre Dame’s Vince Hinostroza’s breakaway attempt.

“Give Faragher some credit, he held us in there and made the big save in overtime on the breakaway,” St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko said.

Faragher raises his record to 20-8-4 this season including 10-0-1 when making 30 or more saves.

The Huskies got on the board first on Ryan Papa’s sixth goal of the season at 6:54 of the opening period. Kalle Kossila’s pin-point pass from the left circle found Papa at the right post for a backdoor one-timer.

The Irish tied it near the halfway point of the first on Bryan Rust’s 17th of the year but St. Cloud State regained the lead with just 35 seconds remaining in the period when Brooks Bertsch scored his third of the season.

St. Cloud State’s Cory Thorson gained possession behind the Notre Dame net and spotted Bertsch, who was camped out below the hashmarks in front of Summerhayes. Bertsch one-timed Thorson’s pass to give the Huskies a 2-1 lead at the break.

Notre Dame’s Kevin Lind drew the Irish even at 8:18 of the second courtesy of an assist by Minnesota coach Don Lucia’s son Mario.  Once again, however, the Huskies responded with a late goal to jump back in front before the end of the period.

This time It was Jonny Brodzinski, whose brother Michael scored for Minnesota earlier in the evening, who turned the trick with a power-play goal at 19:35 of the second giving him 21 on the season and the Huskies three goals on just 10 shots through two periods.

“[The late-period scoring] was huge for us especially because of the way were playing,” Morley said. “We weren’t too happy with our effort and to get us a couple of big goals at the end of each period to get us a lead … Those were huge for us.”

The Irish outshot the Huskies 9-2 in the third and knotted the game once again at the 9:35 mark on a goal by Thomas DiPauli but all that did was set the stage for Dowd’s heroics.

The post Huskies Oust Irish in OT appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Featured image courtesy of St. Cloud State University Athletics.

GRAND FORKS, N.D.—St. Cloud State made its long-awaited National Collegiate Hockey Conference debut a successful one on Friday night in the opening game of the first-ever NCHC series held at Ralph Engelstad Arena. Junior defenseman Andrew Prochno’s first goal of the season at 12:36 of the third period completed a five-minute, three-goal rally as SCSU held on for a 3-2 win over North Dakota.

Prochno’s shot from the left point found its way through heavy traffic in front of the UND net and slipped past goalie Zane Gothberg for a 3-1 Huskies’ lead at the time.

“I was just trying to get it through,” Prochno said. “If there was no traffic at all, it would have been an easy glove save; it was just kind of a seeing-eye goal.”

Kevin Gravel and Kalle Kossila also scored for the Huskies while goaltender Ryan Faragher, who improved his record to 3-1-1 in five career games at the Ralph, earned the game’s No. 1 star honor with 29 saves.

UND got off to a strong start and took a 1-0 lead just 3:10 into the contest on a brilliant individual effort by sophomore Drake Cagguila. The 5’9” Cagguila raced down the right side and beat 6’4” St. Cloud State defenseman Kevin Gravel with a nifty inside-out move before finishing the play with a short-side, top- shelf rocket past SCSU goaltender Ryan Faragher for his third of the year.

The mere presence of Cagguila on the ice was welcome relief for his UND teammates and the fans after a scary open-ice collision in last weekend’s exhibition win over the U.S. Under-18 team. He left the ice on a stretcher and was sent to an area hospital where he was evaluated and later released that same night.

Cagguila, whose spectacular goal was immediately put on YouTube and included in ESPN’s SportsCenter Top-10 plays of the day, said he, “felt good out there.”

North Dakota maintained that one-goal lead into the second intermission despite three power-play opportunities for the Huskies. But Gothberg—a Grand Forks native who grew up in Thief River Falls— made 18 saves through two period, part of his 27 overall, and North Dakota’s top-ranked penalty kill managed to keep St. Cloud State in check through 40 minutes.

The Huskies came out with a fury in the third period and finally got on the scoreboard when Gravel scored his second of the year at the 2:36 mark on a slapshot from the slot past a screened Gothberg. St. Cloud State kept the pressure on and captured a lead it would not relinquish less than two minutes later when sophomore Kossila knocked in a rebound of a Ben Storm shot for his second of the season.

“We just had a mental lapse for the first five, six, seven minutes,” Cagguila said. “Every line was guilty of it. I don’t know if it was effort, but it was a lot of mental errors on our part.”

Prochno’s goal provided the Huskies with what turned out to be a much-needed two-goal cushion as North Dakota wasn’t quite finished. Mark MacMillan drew UND within one with 4:21 to play in regulation and they continued to apply pressure in the game’s final minutes but Faragher and a stingySCSU defense—which made for it difficult for North Dakota to get much going offensively all night— withstood the barrage.

“We just couldn’t get the puck up ice cleanly and into the zone,” North Dakota coach Dave Hakstol said after his team failed to register a shot in three power-play opportunities. “We didn’t get a whole lot going on.”

St. Cloud has the opportunity to become the first team in four years to sweep North Dakota in Grand Forks in Saturday night’s series finale while North Dakota will be looking to salvage a series split. The puck is set to drop at 7:07 p.m.

The post Huskies Rally to Top UND in NCHC Debut appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.