LeNeveu Chasing After a Legacy

Playing goalie at Cornell involves more than saves and good rebound coverage.

Sure, the masked men of Ithaca put on their pads the same way as everyone else, but they seem to have more than just one opponent to deal with every night. There’s a standard to which they are compared from the moment they set foot on campus—a legend that follows them all the way to the crease at Lynah Rink.

Regarded by many as the greatest collegiate goaltender of all-time, Ken Dryden is still revered at Cornell for taking the Big Red to three consecutive Final Fours (1967-1969), winning the ’67 title and going on to win six Stanley Cups in the NHL—feats that earned him a place in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Among the many Big Red goaltending records he set during his tenure is single-season shutouts (six). It has yet to be broken. Maybe that’s because Dave LeNeveu is still a sophomore.

“That’s something I’m taking one game at a time,” said LeNeveu, who already has five shutouts. “Obviously [the record] is there, so you think about it.”

But the net-minder will face one of his greatest challenges of the year when his squad faces off against the Crimson this Saturday night in the most highly anticipated regular-season game at Bright Hockey Center in years.

LeNeveu has come oh-so-close to tying the mark during the past three games. After holding his opponents scoreless through two periods, he gave up late game, insignificant goals—insignificant because Cornell won those games by a combined score of 17-3.

But if LeNeveu is able to surpass Ithaca’s puck icon before the season is through, don’t expect to see that famous picture of Dryden—wearing the old-style goalie mask and leaning his catcher on the cage during a stoppage of play—to be pushed out of the Cornell media guide anytime soon.

“Ken Dryden is there for a reason,” LeNeveu said. “His records were so great because he was a champion. I hope to become a champion before I break any records too.”

“I mean, if the shutout record comes now, that’s great, but I’d trade [that] for a national championship any day,” LeNeveu added.

But with the way Cornell has been playing this season, LeNeveu may be able to have both.

The No. 3 Big Red is 19-4-0 overall and 14-2-0 in the ECAC, two points ahead of No. 13 Harvard. Even if it does not win the ECAC’s automatic bid, Cornell’s place in the expanded, 16-team NCAA tournament is all but assured.

LeNeveu is a big reason why. He leads the nation in both goals against average (1.16) and save percentage (.940). In other words, through his first 19 games (he missed four while playing with Team Canada at the World Junior Championships in Nova Scotia), LeNeveu has allowed just 22 goals on 364 shots.

“His stats are unbelievable,” said Dartmouth coach Bob Gaudet.

“He’s just so technically sound,” said Union coach Kevin Sneddon ’92, whose team was shutout victim No. 4 on Jan. 17. “He doesn’t make mistakes. But a lot of his success, too, is how good of a team he has in front of him.”

LeNeveu is quick to point that out as well.

“The style of hockey that Coach [Mike] Schafer teaches us is a very defensive game,” he said. “The fact that our whole team buys into that style of play is why we have success.”

LeNeveu went on to point out specific members of his Big Red team who have elevated him into the nation’s goaltending elite.

“It’s easy for me when you have players like Doug Murray and Travis Bell—or any number of guys on our team—just taking shots off their chest,” LeNeveu said. “They’ll do anything to get in front of a shot.”

Self-sacrifices will be key if the Big Red hopes to complete its first regular-season sweep of Harvard since the 1997-1998 season. Cornell won the Nov. 22 match-up 5-2 at Lyham Rink in LeNeveu’s first appearance against the Crimson.

“It hurt last year to lose to them in the ECAC championship game,” said LeNeveu of the Crimson’s 4-3, double overtime win in Lake Placid. “So it’s not hard to find that motivation to work hard during the week.”

But LeNeveu is said to be eying more than just the game competition. The British Columbia native will be going head-to-head against Harvard goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris, an opponent who has had similar success this year.

Grumet-Morris, who is No. 2 in the ECAC behind LeNeveu in both goals against average and save percentage, is similarly excited about playing against one of the country’s best.

“It’s a lot of fun when you can do that,” Grumet-Morris said. “It’s a challenge. A lot of the time goaltenders don’t get the personification of their competitiveness, so it’s great to be able to go against another top goaltender.”

“It’s really similar to the way two star pitchers perform,” Grumet-Morris added. “They’re not on the field at the same time and not really in direct contact with each other, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a great duel between them. [In both sports] you’re a marquee player representative of your team but you don’t come into contact with each other.”

But that won’t make the Grumet-Morris-LeNeveu encounter any less intriguing.

“There’s going to be a great flavor to the game,” Grumet-Morris said. “You work hard in practice all year, and these are the games that make it worthwhile.”

– Staff writer John P. Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.