Who are the most unlikely goalies to lead UND to an NCAA national title?
· Yahoo Sports
Apr. 5—GRAND FORKS — The unlikeliest goaltender to ever lead UND to a national championship was actually not even a goaltender.
George Gratton was a forward. But through a series of crazy events, he ended up playing goalie in the 1959 NCAA national championship game.
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To tell the full story, you have to go back to the 1957-58 season.
UND had a phenom in goal with Bob Peters.
Peters was so good that he actually beat UND three years earlier — as a 15-year-old — playing for a team in his hometown of Fort Frances, Ont. Peters was a star on the freshman team in 1956-57 — freshmen were ineligible to play varsity at that time — then put up out-of-this-world numbers when he joined varsity as a sophomore in 1957-58.
The best save percentage any UND goaltender had posted in program history, to that point, was .894. Save percentages generally hovered around .870. Peters was at .927. His goals-against average, 1.27, still stands as the single-season program record.
The Detroit Red Wings wanted to sign Peters the previous summer and paid for him to travel to Detroit for a tryout. Peters decided against attending the tryout and stuck in college.
But Red Wings general manager Jack Adams conjured up a way to compel Peters to sign.
Adams told Michigan State coach Amo Bessone about the payment. Bessone, in turn, filed a complaint with the NCAA to try to get Peters ruled ineligible.
A UND delegate traveled to Philadelphia to argue Peters' case, saying Peters tried to give the money back, but Adams wouldn't take it. It didn't work. The NCAA ruled Peters ineligible.
A furious UND head coach Bob May told the Herald: "If any of the other teams in the league think they have pulled something on us, they have another thought coming."
Peters decided not to sign with Detroit. Instead, he turned to coaching, where he embarked on a lengthy career.
Bob Peabody became the go-to goalie for the second half of that season, while UND added a goalie to the freshman team for the second semester — Tom Forrest of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.
UND was set to go with Peabody and Forrest as its goaltenders in 1958-59, but just before the season started, Forrest was shot and killed in a hunting accident.
May decided to test some of his skaters at the goalie position to add depth. He noticed that forward George Gratton had excellent reflexes and began working on his goaltending skills.
Gratton got into a couple of games in the second half.
Peabody was the guy, though, and he led UND to the national tournament.
Peabody was in net for UND's 4-3 overtime win over St. Lawrence in the 1959 semifinal. Peabody got hurt in that game, though, and was unable to play in the national championship game.
UND turned to Gratton.
The forward-turned-goalie came through. Gratton stopped 21 shots, helping UND to a 4-3 overtime win. Reg Morelli scored the overtime goal to give UND its first NCAA national championship.
Who did they beat in the final?
Bessone and Michigan State.
Here's a look at all of UND's NCAA national championship-winning goaltenders — from the most unlikely to the most likely:
Gratton, a converted forward from Toronto, became UND's first title-winning goaltender after the regular starter, Peabody, was too injured to play in the national championship game.
*Freshmen weren't eligible at the time
Schweitzer came to UND as a 17-year-old in the fall of 1996 from the Saskatchewan midget ranks. He was not supposed to be the starter. In fact, coach Dean Blais considered redshirting Schweitzer early in the year.
But things changed. He got his first win in December and reeled off seven wins in a row in the second half of the season. Schweitzer and UND beat Cornell, Colorado College and Boston University in the NCAA tournament. It was Schweitzer's lone year as a primary starter. The following year, Karl Goehring grabbed the starting job as a freshman.
UND returned two goaltenders from the 1961-62 team in Dudley Otto and George Baland. But Lech, of Glen Bain, Sask., ended up taking the job in his first year of varsity eligibility.
UND did not need a sharp performance from Lech in the national title game. He stopped just 11 of 16 shots, but UND outscored Denver 6-5.
UND returned Bob Iwabuchi and Mel Donnelly from the 1979 NCAA national runner-up team, but Jensen emerged in the second half of the season. He did not lose a game all year, going 13-0-1.
UND coach Gino Gasparini started Iwabuchi in the semifinal, but came back with Jensen in the final against Northern Michigan. Jensen, of Creston, B.C., was drafted by Hartford after the season.
Johnson only started one game as a freshman in 2014-15 — and he got pulled after allowing three goals on 12 shots to Lake Superior State at home. Zane McIntyre, who won the Mike Richter Award that season as the best goalie in the nation, got the rest of the starts.
Johnson had a rocky start as a sophomore, including an injury that kept him out for more than a month. But when he got back, he immediately posted the second-longest shutout streak in college hockey history. He went on to anchor UND's squad to the NCAA title. He has continued at the pro level, winning three ECHL Kelly Cups in a row.
The 1982 team has the distinction of being the only team in college hockey history with three goaltenders who all had 10 wins — Jensen, Jon Casey and Pierre Lamoureux.
Jensen, who was in a two-car accident in December 1981, slipped to third-string in the second half of the season, while Casey and Lamoureux rotated in net. Casey was named first-team all-Western Collegiate Hockey Association that season. But once the NCAA tournament hit, Gasparini turned back to Jensen, who won a second NCAA title.
Belfour came to UND as a 21-year-old freshman and immediately impressed his teammates with his fierce competitiveness in practice. He quickly became the go-to starter and set a school record by winning 29 games in a season.
UND, picked sixth in the WCHA that season, won its first eight games of the season and went 40-8 overall. That was Belfour's lone season with the program. He signed with the Chicago Blackhawks after the year and embarked on a Hall of Fame career.
By 1999-00, Goehring was in his third year as a starter and a well-established star. He was an All-American as a freshman and a two-time all-WCHA pick.
Goehring then capped a dominant junior season with an NCAA title. He posted a .927 save percentage — a single-season school record at the time — and a 1.89 goals-against average, which at the time ranked only behind Peters. He posted eight shutouts, a record that still stands today.
Goehring, a first-team All-American, beat Niagara, Maine and Boston College en route to the NCAA national championship. He allowed just three goals in three NCAA tournament games.