The Spartan hockey team will have a logjam in the crease a few years from now, thanks to the recent verbal commitment of goaltender Dominic Vicari.
Vicari, a 5-foot-10, 170-pounder from Clinton Township, told MSU coaches several weeks ago that he intends to join the Spartans in fall 2003. That will give MSU three scholarship goaltenders for the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons.
Vicari will battle for future playing time with current sophomore netminder Matt Migliaccio and incoming recruit Justin Tobe. Tobe has verbally committed to MSU and will either join the Spartans this season or next season.
All three goalies said they will welcome the competition from one another.
“I always knew there would be three goalies in college,” Tobe said Friday. “I don’t really view it as a threat, it’s just competition. You gotta play your best to get playing time.”
Vicari, who will turn 18 in October, played for the River City (Omaha) Lancers of the U.S. Hockey League last season and will play for them again this year. He amassed a 25-5-1 record, 1.78 goals against average, .926 saves percentage and seven shutouts with the Lancers last season. MSU junior center Tim Hearon also played junior hockey with the Lancers.
“I really liked everything on my official visit,” Vicari said Friday. “Meeting the coaching staff really helped my decision and all the players said it’s just a great place to play.
“Committing now will let me go out and play and concentrate on my game next year without having to worry about trying to get picked up by a school.”
Vicari said he chose MSU over Miami (Ohio), Ohio State and Nebraska-Omaha. He is the second member of MSU’s 2003-04 recruiting class, following East Lansing forward Drew Miller, who signed a letter of intent last year. Tobe also could join the team in 2003-04 if current goalie Ryan Miller stays for his senior season and forces Tobe to play another year of juniors.
Because of NCAA rules, MSU coaches are not allowed to comment on recruits until they sign a National Letter of Intent. Vicari likely will sign a letter in November.
Tobe already knows Vicari from their time together on the HoneyBaked Midget Major Hockey Club a few years ago. He said Vicari will turn out to be a solid acquisition for the Spartans.
“I saw Dominic (Friday), and he seemed pretty excited,” Tobe said. “He’s a similar goalie to me and I’m glad that the kid I’m going to be competing against is a kid I know from the past.”
“We weren’t great friends off the ice,” Vicari said of Tobe. “But goalies are always going to be tight on the ice. I think it’ll make us both better goalies to compete against one another.”
As the only one of the three already at MSU, Migliaccio has the unenviable task of watching Tobe and Vicari invade his turf and try to take the starting job away from him. But he said he doesn’t have any hostility toward the young guns, nor toward the coaching staff that is making his path to the starting job harder and harder.
“I haven’t seen Dominic in a while, but I’ve heard only good things about him,” said Migliaccio, who also knows Vicari from HoneyBaked. “It’ll be real good for the team to have three solid goalies like us. It pushes me more, makes me work harder.
“I’m comfortable with my capabilities to lead the team to a lot of wins.”
Miller taking his time
NHL teams snatched a pair of Wolverine underclassmen - defenseman Mike Komisarek (Montreal) and center Mike Cammalleri (Los Angeles) - last week, but there still is no word on whether the Buffalo Sabres plan to sign MSU senior goaltender Ryan Miller. Miller is thought to be ready to leave for the right contract and Sabres general manager Darcy Regier has been quoted as saying he wants to sign Miller this summer.
But everything still is relatively quiet on the Miller front for now.
“There’s nothing new that we know about,” Miller’s mother, Teresa Miller, said Friday. “They don’t tell us anything.”
