Men's Ice Hockey | January 30, 2019
Western Michigan University goaltender Trevor Gorsuch has been an overnight success this season…it just took 12 years for that 'overnight' to happen.
The senior has been a brick wall between the pipes this season, helping the No. 8-ranked Broncos to a 15-8-1 overall record (8-5-1 National Collegiate Hockey Conference, third place). Western Michigan is on the road this weekend with a series against Omaha, a team which WMU split with earlier this season in Kalamazoo.
Gorsuch leads the NCHC in saves percentage at .930. He's also second in goals-against average at 2.06 and tied for third in victories at 12.
''I've always believed in myself, that I could be a success in college hockey and be an asset to our team,'' Gorsuch said. ''There were points of peaks and valleys the past three years here, no doubt, but I felt if I played my game, I could make some sort of a difference.''
The problem was playing his game wasn't getting him playing time on the ice. Coming into this season, Gorsuch had played in just 19 games for the Broncos. Something had to change.
''When I was young, I used to watch this tape, 'Goalies – Last Line of Defense' and it was all about goalies of the 1990s like Martin Brodeur, John VanBiesbrouk, Dominik Hasek and Guy Hebert who used their athleticism and that's basically how I learned to play goalie.
''There weren't a lot of goalie coaches when I was growing up. Then when I was like 12 years old, I found one in Bruce Racine who was a former NHLer.''
Athleticism runs in the Gorsuch family. Trevor's father, Jack, was a professional tennis player and also was drafted by the Kansas City Royals. Jack's uncle, Chuck McKinley, won the 1963 Wimbledon men's singles championship. There was Jack's father who had a couple of pro boxing fights.
Of course, the problem for Trevor Gorsuch was Racine had an idea of how his talented 12-year-old should play. Gorsuch had other ideas.
''Bruce had the same message for me since I was 12, but I didn't do it a lot,'' Gorsuch said. ''Then I'm rehearing the same message to quiet down from Tom (WMU volunteer goaltender coach Tom Askey).
''I had to take a step back, check my ego at the door and really look at myself in a mature way and say I didn't want to ride the bench for my senior year. I want to make a difference.''
Askey's take on Gorsuch was the 6-foot, 2-inch goaltender was overmoving.
''Trevor was making the simple saves harder than what they should be,'' the coach said. ''That's stuff I have harped on him for a few years. I told him that if he could calm down, he could be an All-American.''
Added WMU hockey head coach Andy Murray: ''Trevor's always been a competitor and a hard worker who needed to adjust his style and he's doing that. To his credit, he listened and Tom has him playing a more stable game.''
It also helps that Askey and Murray have confidence in all the goaltenders – sophomore Austin Cain, junior Ben Blacker and senior Will Massey - which means Gorsuch knows he has to be on top of his game every day in practice and in every game.
''We go game to game with the players, so what Trevor has done earned him the right to start the next game,'' Murray said. ''From his first opportunity this season, he's taken advantage of it.''
Gorsuch thinks that opportunity to play for Western Michigan almost didn't come. After his second year of playing junior hockey in Flint, he returned to his home in St. Louis.
''I get a phone call from a Michigan area code and I'm at home, playing PlayStation and hanging out in my room, wondering who is calling from Michigan,'' the senior said. ''I answer and hear this voice asking if Trevor Gorsuch is there.
''And I say 'Yeah, this is he.' And then comes, 'Oh, good. This is Andy Murray from Western Michigan University' and I'm pretty sure my heart stopped. And I say, 'Hello Sir, ah Coach…how are you?'
''I'm terrified I messed up my chance to play college hockey. It was a good conversation and I'm hoping he doesn't remember that, but knowing coach Murray, he doesn't forget anything.''
Murray definitely won't forget the series at North Dakota which showed what hard work, and changes, could do for Gorsuch. Against the No. 11 team in the nation, Gorsuch won 2-0 on Friday and 6-2 on Saturday.
''Going into North Dakota, I had a different feeling,'' the goaltender said. ''I was extremely nervous because the last time I started in that building, in my freshman year, it was my second career start and I gave up four goals in a period and a half.
''One of the three goals in the first period was ESPN SportsCenter's No. 1 play of the night where a North Dakota player went weaving, wining and dining our entire team and fakes a shot from the side of the net. I bit and he went around me and tucked it in from behind the goal line. I had all that going through my head.''
A few text messages from his dad, who told his son that the senior had been waiting for an opportunity like this all his life and to relax, to do everything that he had been doing and it would be fine.
''I suddenly had this sense of quiet about me,'' Gorsuch said.
He had a busy first period and a pretty busy second period, but was so dialed in, he didn't realize that the game was a 0-0 tie.
''We went into the locker room after the end of the second and everyone is giving me space and no one is sitting by me,'' Gorsuch said. ''Nobody is talking to me, then finally someone says, 'Dude, you are playing unreal, it's a 0-0 game and they are outshooting us like 28-6. We're going to win this game for Gors because he's playing great and held us in this game.''
The Broncos scored twice in the third period for the win and then rolled to another victory on Saturday. Including that series, Western Michigan is 11-2-1 in its last 14 games.
The senior goes out of his way to give a lot of credit for his success to his teammates.
''We watched all the blocks shots by my teammates from this past Saturday night's game (5-1 win over Denver),'' he said. ''You can say I was the No. 1 star, but no one person gets all the credit because my teammates blocked like 18 shots.
''Our guys have been selling out to block shots and I give them all the credit. It's my job to make the saves on shots they don't block, but it makes my job easier when they are blocking all those shots.''
Gorsuch is hoping a chance to play professionally in the states comes after this season.
''I've wanted to play at the next level since I was seven-years-old,'' he said. ''If I hadn't had the success I've had this season, with the connections all our coaches have, I thought they could find me something overseas and I would have been OK with that.
''Now, I believe playing professionally in the states has become much more of a reality and an attainable goal, instead of a fantasy.
That's far down the road, though.
''But at the end of the day, it's about getting the 'W' for the Broncos and winning a national championship in my senior year,'' I've always believed in the We before Me.''
Gorsuch, who has been playing the position full-time since he was seven, agrees that goaltenders are a unique breed.
''I can't say there is a normal goaltender out there,'' he said with a laugh. ''We're all a little off and you have to be to stand in the net and let people fire pucks at you which are made of vulcanized rubber which is super hard and coming in super fast.
''I'd like to say I'm a little more normal than most, but my teammates would disagree on that one.''
