Senior Goalie Scott Barchard Sets Career Saves Record In Two-Plus Seasons for Jumbos

MEDFORD - In his first start for the Tufts hockey team at Williams College on November 21, 2008, goalie Scott Barchard (Reading, MA) made 49 saves for the Jumbos. That remains one of the 25 best single-game totals in team history and was a sign of saves to come.

This past Saturday (Dec. 3) at home against Middlebury, Barchard made a glove save at 9:02 of the second period for the 2,167th stop of his career. With it, he became the team's all-time leader in saves. Finishing with 41 against the Panthers, he currently has a total of 2,188 heading into this coming weekend's games against Bowdoin and Colby. That surpassed the 2,166 saves made by his predecessor in the Jumbo net, James Kalec, from 2004-08.

As expected from the team-oriented goalie, Barchard downplayed the news when contacted by the Tufts Daily.

"It was the last thing on my mind going into this weekend," Barchard told the Daily. "We had two tough NESCAC games against Williams and Middlebury approaching, and I was much more concerned about that.

"The record will probably mean something to me looking back at the end of the season, but right now it doesn't really mean anything. After losing the two games, I'm just looking forward to getting back to practice on Monday."

A workhorse in the net, Barchard reached the total in just two-plus seasons. He led the New England Small College Athletic Conference in saves with 862 as a freshman in 2008-09, when he played in 24 of the team's 25 games. He again played in 24 of 25 games as a sophomore in 2009-10 and led the nation with 986 saves. He became Tufts Hockey's first-ever All-American that season. Last year he was injured four games into the Jumbos' 2010-11 campaign and made 116 saves. Seven games into his senior season this year, Barchard has 221 saves.

More impressive than the amount of saves that Barchard has accumulated is the frequency with which he's made them. His .927 save percentage in 2008-09 ranked ninth nationally. He led the nation with a .939 save percentage in 2009-10. He was at .929 during his injury-shortened junior season, and is at .925 so far this year. Barchard currently owns an excellent .932 career save percentage, stopping 2,188 of the 2,344 shots that he's faced. He's allowed 159 goals in 3,418:01 of ice time, good for a 2.79 goals against average.

Barchard owns 12 of the team's top 25 best single-game saves totals, including the Jumbo record of 63 saves at Saint Anselm on December 5, 2009 when he was a sophomore. Nine times he's been credited with 50 or more saves. With a good, young defense in front of him this season, it's unlikely the sturdy 6-foot, 195-pound goalie will need to make that amount of stops in a game again.

Listing Andy Moog, the former Edmoton Oilers, Boston Bruins and Dallas Stars goalie as his favorite athlete, Barchard's concentration on the technical aspects of playing the position has served him well.

"If a save looks flashy, then I feel like I'm out of position," Barchard said during an interview in 2010. "If I'm in a position where I can take it right in the chest and hold it, that's what I want to do. I try to play very simple."

On most of his nearly 2,200 saves now, that's exactly what Scott Barchard has done in net for the Tufts Jumbos.

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