Meriläinen, Søgaard Providing Unprecedented Goaltending in Belleville

For fans of the Belleville Senators, it’s an unfamiliar feeling to have a sense of stability between the pipes. While there are a few names who have come through Belleville who have gone on to play in the NHL — Filip Gustavsson, Joey Daccord, and Chris Driedger — even those goaltenders didn’t hop off the page with their statistical play with the B-Sens. If you’ve been following along over the years, it might feel like this is the first time where the club has not one, but two strong options in the crease. If you do happen to feel this way, you’ll be happy to know that your feelings are statistically correct.

Before we get into the weeds, it’s important to note that we’re working with a small sample size to start the season. Mads Søgaard has eight starts to his name, while Leevi Meriläinen has three. There’s still plenty of hockey left, and thus plenty of time for these numbers to change. That being said, what this tandem has done to start the season has been nothing short of impressive. Collectively, they are 6-3-1 with a combined save percentage of 0.932 and goals against average of 2.14.

In essence, these two home grown netminders are giving the team a great chance to win every single night.

In the AHL, there are 64 goalies regularly in rotation across the league’s 32 teams. Overall, Meriläinen currently ranks third in save percentage for qualified goalies (having started a minimum of three games) while Søgaard sits 15th. In that top 15, only three teams — Hartford, Calgary and Belleville — feature more than one goalie. League-wide, this is obviously fantastic news.

But for the Senators, the magnitude of these performances reaches far beyond just this season.

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Looking back to 2017-18 which saw the Senators make the move from Binghamton to Belleville, the team has rostered 20 goalies who started a minimum of ten games. The number of goaltenders with a save percentage better than what Søgaard or Meriläinen have posted thus far is zero. In fact, before this season, this iteration of Ottawa’s farm team has only ever had four goaltenders post a save percentage of .910 or better: Marcus Högberg (2018-19, .917 SV%), Gustavsson (2021-22, .915 SV%), Daccord (2019-20, .915 SV%) and Dylan Ferguson (2022-23, .912 SV%). Søgaard (0.923) and Meriläinen (0.941) are posting far better numbers this season.

In the AHL, the most important comparisons come from within your division. After all, due to travel, much of the AHL regular season is played against that same group of teams. If we look back at the goaltending tandems for the 2022-23 North Division playoff teams, the best performing starting goaltender was Cayden Primeau with a .909 SV%. In 2021-22, it was Laval’s Kevin Poulin (.920 SV%). In 2020-21, it was actually Belleville’s Gustavsson with .910 SV% through 13 starts. I think you get where I’m going here.

Comparing regular season results to playoff success, you can logically see a direct trend between teams with strong goaltending and playoff runs. Last year, Dustin Wolf‘s .932 SV% in the regular season translated into a trip to the Western Conference Finals for the Calgary Wranglers. Charlie Lindgren‘s .925 SV% in 2021-22 saw Springfield take a trip all the way to the big dance, where they lost to Chicago in five games. Beyond having deep playoff runs, the vast majority of teams who have top 20 goaltending logically end up making the postseason. As we know, anything can happen once you’re in, but the most important thing is getting in.

Even if either goaltender sees a regression in their play throughout the course of the season, this is a tandem that should have no problem giving Belleville an opportunity to get back to the postseason.

If they can maintain this play, however, this could be the year we finally see a deep run.