Goalie Battle Down To Two

Carter Hart got one full pre-season game in, and while it ended in an OTL it was enough to prove he doesn't need pre-season work to be regular-season ready.

Samuel Ersson got his chance at a full game last night, in which he proved he's ready, willing, and able to be the backup for the big club. He has only allowed a total of 4 goals combined across all of his appearances and has looked calm, cool, and collected while doing it.

It's a feature of his game that he shares with Hart that may very well be the part that endears both of them to Tortorella.

With one pre-season game left, and two goalies without a full game of work to their name, a hard decision had to be made. With the body of work of the three goalies battling for the backup position they had to look at the decision may have been a bit easier than one may think.

Sandström had an awful season last year, but he came into camp this year ready to fight for his position. He's well aware if he makes the team, like last year, he'll be the backup to Hart, but he has put his head down and fought to try to keep the position that was previously his to lose. To his credit, He has had a decent camp. In the pre-season action he has seen so far, even though neither was a full game, he far outplayed Petersen.

As noted above, in the first game of the pre-season Petersen was less than stellar. He got lit up for 4 goals in the first five minutes, and while not all of them were totally his fault, you'd like to see the goalie make a ridiculous save at least once to potentially swing the momentum. Petersen was incapable of doing so in this game. He did eventually settle down a bit, but his game was far from smooth or steady. He continued to fight the puck off throughout the rest of his stint in the crease in that game before giving way for Sandström to finish out the game.

In his second partial game, he was far better. His rebound control was more controlled and he made some big stops. However, despite that he still allowed an extremely weak goal that likely hurt him. The puck just leaked through him and slipped just over the goal line, which I'm sure did not help him win any points with Tortorella and Dillabaugh in the goalie battle.

As a result, it's probably no surprise that Cal Petersen was placed on waivers today for the purpose of being sent to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms(AHL), and the backup goalie battle is now down to Samuel Ersson and Felix Sandström.

Of the two remaining goalies, Ersson has probably had the better of the play, but it's also worth pointing out he's the only one with a full game to his name. This likely means Thursday's starter for the pre-season finale will be Sandström, and he'll probably get the full game. How he plays in the game could very well make or break his chances.