Bruins' red-hot rookie goalie duplicating college feats says Merrimack coach

Apr. 15—Merrimack College men's hockey coach Scott Borek was watching the Boston Bruins' game the other night, with their rookie "sensation" Jeremy Swayman in goal, winning for a third time in four outings.

It was strange, said Borek.

"I know he was wearing a black Bruins jersey, but I saw a Maine jersey," said Borek, referring to Swayman's collegiate team. "I was like, 'Wow!' It was the same guy I saw at Maine: dominant, athletic and amazing."

Swayman is going to be a topic of discussion real soon, maybe controversially.

The 22-year-old from Achorage, Alaska, a Bruins fourth-round pick in 2017, has continued where he left off at Maine, where he was a first-team All-American last spring and with the Providence Bruins, in which he won eight of nine games the last two months with a 1.89 goals-against average.

He is 3-1, allowing 2.22 goals per game, which ranks him in the top 15 of NHL goalies that have played at least four games.

The controversy could come soon, when Tuukka Rask returns to the net on Thursday night, or later, when Rask's contract runs out after this season.

It seems like a lot of pressure for a "kid" who has very little body of work.

"It's hard to translate how a college player will do in the NHL, so I couldn't have predicted Jeremy's early successes," said coach Borek. "But I do know one thing. I wanted him to sign after his junior year. I wanted him out of college hockey."

There's a reason. Swayman was elite, almost from Day 1.

Coach Borek first saw Swayman when he was a Providence College assistant and Swayman was a UMaine freshman.

Providence was on a run of epic proportions at the time, with five consecutive NCAA tourney berths and one national title.

They faced off in a best of three-game series in the Hockey East quarterfinals. Providence outshot Maine a whopping 75-35 over the two games, winning 4-3 and 3-2.

"We were good. We had a deep lineup. We expected to compete for a national championship," said Borek. "We played really well. We outshot them badly. But we had to scrape by them, two one-goal games, with them pulling (Swayman). He was outstanding."

Swayman beat Borek's Merrimack teams in three of their four meetings over his sophomore and junior seasons at UMaine.

"He was one of those goalies that could really take confidence away from a team," recalled Borek of the 6-foot-2, 190-pounder. "He's very composed. He's very athletic. But he's also big and square. He gave very little opening to shoot at.

"When you combine size with guys that are athletic, sometimes they move too much," said Borek. "He didn't. Man, he was tough to beat."

Finding that quality of a player is on the mind of every college coach in America.

UMaine was 12-9-3 and 11-9-1 over Swayman's last two years in Hockey East. It fell to 3-10-2 this past winter. In Swayman's All-American season last year he was 18-11-5 overall with a 2.07 g.a.a.

"He reminds me of Connor Hellebuyck when he was at Lowell," said Borek, referring to the two-time NHL all-star goalie and 2019-20 Vezina Trophy winner as the game's best with Winnipeg Jets.

"You have a distinct advantage with a guy like Jeremy, the confidence the team plays with in front of him," said Borek. "The last time Merrimack was really successful was with Joey Cannata taking out pucks. It allows you to play on your toes."

You can email Bill Burt at bburt@eagletribune.com.