Saturday, January 29, 2011

Saints Goaltender Commits to University of Maine

Press Release

Dubuque Fighting Saints goaltender Matt Morris has committed to play collegiate hockey at the University of Maine following his USHL career.

"I knew right away when I visited that Maine was the place I wanted to go," Morris told the Dubuque Telegraph Herald. "The campus is beautiful, I really liked the coaching staff, and they have a great track record of producing goalies at the NHL level."

The 17-year-old has been one of the League's top goaltenders during his first USHL season. Morris leads the League with a 1.87 goals-against-average and is also currently on top with a .931 save percentage. He won his debut in the USHL, making 27 saves in a 4-1 victory over Team USA on October 9th. At one stretch in November, Morris won six straight starts and posted a 0.50 GAA during that span which included three shutouts. The native of Ridgewood, New Jersey was selected by the Saints 82nd overall in the 2010 USHL Entry Draft.

Morris's coach in Dubuque, Jim Montgomery, is the all-time leading scorer at the University of Maine and helped the school capture their first-ever NCAA Championship during the 1992-93 season.

"It's pretty neat that Matt wants to be a Black Bear and carry on the great tradition there," said Montgomery to the Telegraph Herald. "The bottom line is each player has to make a college choice based on how he's going to fit in academically, socially, and athletically at that school."

Youngstown Phantoms forward Stu Higgins is another current USHL player committed to attend the University of Maine.

The Black Bears are a member of Hockey East and currently ranked #12 nationally. Seven USHL alumni are on the roster for Maine this season; Mark Anthoine (Sioux Falls Stampede/Chicago Steel), Robby Dee (Omaha Lancers), Joe Diamond (Omaha Lancers), Will O'Neill (Omaha Lancers), Nick Pryor (Waterloo Black Hawks/Des Moines Buccaneers), Dan Sullivan (Omaha Lancers), and Jon Swavely (Sioux City Musketeers).

(Nathan can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)

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