This is the moment Marc
Cheverie has been working towards since he arrived at the University of Denver.
The sophomore goaltender began the season as perhaps the Pioneers biggest question mark, a talented but untested quantity on a team that otherwise appeared solid at every other position.
Now, as DU embarks on a postseason road it hopes will end with the program's eighth national championship, Cheverie clearly has developed into one of the Pioneers strengths.
The arc
Cheverie has traveled this season could not have evolved more fortuitously for DU. As the Pioneers begin play in the NCAA tournament, the top-seeded
Pios open the West Regional in Minneapolis against Miami (Ohio) on Friday,
Cheverie is primed to make his mark in what is commonly referred to as a "Goaltender's Tournament."
"I'm very pumped to get it going. I've been looking forward to it all year,"
Cheverie said. "You have to win everything from here on out to make or break the season. A hot goalie can win you games, and at some point you're always going to have to get through tough times."
"But I wouldn't totally agree that it is totally just a goaltender's tournament, because team defense tightens up and sometimes goalies will look better than they are playing at times. I've experienced that, where the team is really playing great in front of me and I get the first star when I probably don't deserve it. But in the playoffs, it happens that the goalie has to be hot at the right time. This year, there have been so many ups and downs with injuries that we're prepared for anything."
As
Cheverie has grown more comfortable, the Pioneers defense has become much more formidable. Out of the gate,
Cheverie and the DU defense surrendered at least four goals in three of the first five games of the season. The Pioneers have allowed at least four goals in just 4-of-20 games since the holidays, all of which occurred against eventual NCAA tournament teams (Boston, North Dakota, and twice against Minnesota Duluth).
Much of that improvement can be traced to
Cheverie, who garnered second team All-Western Collegiate Hockey Association honors while morphing into the sort of back-line savior that inspires teammates and creates an added level of defensive confidence.
"Without a doubt, from the beginning of the season until now, it's like night and day," Junior
defenseman Cody
Brookwell said. "That was one of the question marks coming into the season, but he has progressed throughout the season. I don't think he's ever taken a step back. He has gotten better and better. That's a big part our job, having confidence in him, and I'm sure the same goes for him having confidence in us."
Cheverie ranks second in the
WCHA in goals-against average (2.30) and save percentage (.923), trailing only Duluth's first-team All-
WCHA selection (and
DU's possible West Regional final opponent) Alex
Stalock.
Cheverie's save percentage also ranks as the third-best single-season mark in the program's rich history, behind the record .943 mark compiled by Wade
Dubielewicz during the 2001-02 season and Peter
Mannino's .927 mark during the 2004-05 national championship season.
What is even more impressive about Cheverie's mark is that he did it as a full-time starter, while Dubielewicz and Mannino each toiled in a platoon system during those respective seasons.
Even after only one season as DU's starter, perhaps the only thing still lacking on Cheverie's resume is a proven postseason track record. One season after watching from the bench as Mannino's career ended with a first-round loss against Wisconsin, Cheverie is ready to cross that off his checklist while, hopefully, leading DU to the type of glory Mannino did in 2005.
"Realizing the pressure you face, and the importance of every game and every minute, that's what I saw at the tournament last year,"
Cheverie said. "There is no room for error, no room for complacency. Every playoff game last year, every game I watched, was a learning experience. I'm confident in my own abilities and the abilities of my teammates. I think it is a good combination. Everything has to be going. Everyone has to trust each other, and I think that's what we have right now."
