Saros Wins on Rinne’s Hall of Fame Night, Postava Is the AHL’s Goalie of the Month

NHLAround the league

• Laurent Brossoit is 2-0 since Anaheim recalled him from San Diego on Saturday. He made 19 saves in a 5-4 win in Vancouver, his summer home, with family and friends watching, two nights after the first NHL win of his long injury comeback in our Nov. 2 edition. “It’s obviously very, very special,” he told InGoal co-founder Kevin Woodley (NHL.com).
• Dylan Garand made 32 saves in the Rangers’ 3-1 win over St. Louis, his 11th game in a row since Igor Shesterkin was hurt, and was 52 seconds from a second shutout. “He wanted to bounce back and have a solid night for the group and he did,” said coach Mike Sullivan. Garand said this is his first time carrying an NHL workload and he is learning “how to manage that physically and mentally” (NHL.com).

• Connor Hellebuyck won his first start at Prudential Center as a Devil, 4-3 over Edmonton in a shootout, and ended it by stopping Kasperi Kapanen. It was his third straight win. “I thought the guys played really good in front of me,” he said (NHL.com).

• Sebastian Cossa made 27 saves in Utah’s 3-2 win in Toronto, his fourth win in six games this season, on the day his old Grand Rapids partner Michal Postava was named the AHL’s goalie of the month (below) (NHL.com).

On InGoal: Laurent Brossoit and goalie coach Wade Flaherty with a drill for rush chances, and InGoal Radio Episode 134 with Sebastian Cossa.

NHLFlames EBUG Dusty Nickel has joined the "goalie union"

Dusty Nickel, 35, spent years as Calgary’s on-call emergency backup. Under the league’s new rules he now has the job full time: he travels with the Flames, flies and stays with the team on the road, and is one of the first on the ice at practice, taking shots from NHL players in Flames gear. The Calgary native played in the AJHL, the SJHL, and at Mount Royal University, and works in his family’s construction business. When Devin Cooley left last week’s game in Edmonton after 20 minutes, goaltending coach Jason LaBarbera texted Nickel, who went down from the press box and watched the rest of the game in the dressing room with Cooley. “They’re awesome,” he said of the Flames’ goalies. “They’ve kind of just included me as part of the goalie union here.” Dustin Wolf returned the compliment: “He’s a fun dude and puts the work in” (CalgaryFlames.com).

On InGoal: Nickel told the story of his first NHL night, backing up Dan Vladar in November 2023, on InGoal Radio Episode 236, and our Oct. 3 edition covered the rule that put a full-time EBUG with every NHL team.

AHLMichal Postava is the goaltender of the month after a perfect October

Grand Rapids’ Michal Postava won all four of his October starts with a 1.25 goals-against average and a .954 save percentage, and the AHL named him its goaltender of the month on Tuesday. At 5-0, 1.20, and .955 for the season, he leads the league in save percentage, is second in goals-against average, and shares the lead in wins. In 30 AHL regular-season games he has yet to allow more than three goals in one. He is the Griffins’ third goaltender of the month in a year: Sebastian Cossa won it in November and December 2025, and the two shared last season’s Hap Holmes Award, which goes to the goalies of the team that allows the fewest goals (Griffins).

His month also took in his NHL debut and his first NHL win with Detroit, in our Oct. 23 and Oct. 27 editions.

CollegeEmma Rhéaume stops all 28 as Union blanks RPI in the NCAA

Union sophomore Emma Rhéaume made 28 saves, 18 of them in the third period, to hold a 1-0 win at RPI in Troy, N.Y., on Tuesday. Giavanna Mancy’s goal 46 seconds into the second period stood up (College Hockey News box score). It was Rhéaume’s second shutout this season and the fourth of her Union career (Union Athletics).

InternationalŠtěpán Lukeš scores a shorthanded goalie goal in Germany

EV Landshut goalie Štěpán Lukeš scored a goal on Sunday in the DEL2, Germany’s second division. Landshut led the Lausitzer Füchse 4-2 late in the game but was killing a five-minute major, and the Füchse had pulled Anthony Morrone for an extra attacker. Lukeš lifted the puck from his own end the full length of the ice and into the empty net at 59:36 to finish a 5-2 home win in front of 3,967 fans (Lausitzer Füchse). The video is from Sporťák, a Czech sports outlet.

On InGoal: His goal is on our goalie goals page. With it, the page now lists 243 verified goalie goals from 20 leagues.

JuniorSudbury's Paolo Frasca, 20, and Val-d'Or's Vincent Moreau, 18, are goalies of the month

Paolo Frasca of the Sudbury Wolves is the OHL’s goaltender of the month for October after going 9-1-0-0 with a 1.98 goals-against average, a .939 save percentage, and a shutout. He had the best save percentage among the league’s qualified starters through the month. The Toronto native was an 11th-round OHL pick by Windsor in 2022, came through St. Andrew’s College and the BCHL, and joined Sudbury in a trade last November (OHL).

In the QMJHL, Vincent Moreau of the Val-d’Or Foreurs is goaltender of the month for September and October. The 18-year-old from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, went 8-1-0-0 with a 1.87 goals-against average and a .928 save percentage, and leads the league in all three. He finished October on a six-game winning streak that included his first QMJHL shutout, on Oct. 14 in Charlottetown (QMJHL).

In the WHL, Cal Conway of the Swift Current Broncos is the goaltender of the week after going 2-1 with a 1.68 goals-against average and a .957 save percentage. The 19-year-old from Andover, Minnesota, stopped all 34 shots for his first WHL shutout in a 3-0 win over Seattle on Oct. 28, made 43 saves in a loss to Everett two nights later, and finished the week with 35 saves in a 7-2 win in Brandon. He leads the WHL in wins this season (WHL). The WHL’s goalie of the month, Spokane’s Carter Esler, was in our Nov. 3 edition.

HistoryRogie Vachon goes to Los Angeles

On this day in 1971, Montreal traded Rogie Vachon to the Los Angeles Kings for goalie Denis DeJordy and three other players, Dale Hoganson, Noel Price, and Doug Robinson. Vachon had three Stanley Cups with the Canadiens and a share of the 1968 Vezina Trophy with Gump Worsley, but with Ken Dryden now the starter he asked for a move to a team that needed one (Wikipedia). He spent seven seasons with the Kings and was their most valuable player four times, and in 1985 his No. 30 became the first number the club retired (hockeygoalies.org). He went into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2016.

Also on Nov. 4

• 1967: Les Binkley stopped all 31 shots in a 1-0 win over the Seals in Oakland, the first shutout in Pittsburgh Penguins history and the first of his NHL career. He was a 33-year-old rookie who had come up the hard way: the AHL Cleveland Barons once kept him on as their trainer, getting the towels and soap ready after practice, in case their only goalie got hurt (The Hockey News). Hat tip to Mike Commito, whose post is below.
• 1967: Hall of Famer Bernie Parent won his first game for the expansion Philadelphia Flyers, 33 saves on 34 shots in Montreal.
• 1974: Cesare Maniago played his 400th regular-season game, for Minnesota in Montreal, the 22nd goalie to get there by the NHL’s current totals.
• 1996: Stéphane Fiset played his 200th regular-season game, 33 saves for Los Angeles in Boston.
• 2002: Dan Cloutier played his 200th regular-season game, a Vancouver win in Colorado.
• 2014: Ondřej Pavelec played his 300th regular-season game, 23 saves in a Winnipeg win over Nashville.
• 2016: Sal Magliocco of Elmira College was credited with an empty-net goal against Stevenson in NCAA Division III, according to hockeygoalies.org.
• 2023: Alexandar Georgiev played his 200th regular-season game, for Colorado in Vegas.

The NHL game details in this list come from the NHL’s game records at NHL Records.

On InGoal: InGoal Radio Episode 279 with Cesare Maniago.

BirthdaysSchwab and Fichaud

Happy birthday to Utah Mammoth goaltending coach Corey Schwab (56), who played most of his NHL games for the Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs and won the Stanley Cup with the 2003 New Jersey Devils, and to former New York Islanders and Nashville Predators goalie Éric Fichaud (51).

Have goalie news, a big save, a signing, or a coaching hire? Send it to news@ingoalmag.com.