The USHL Player of the Year and Goaltender of the Year recently completed his junior hockey career, losing 2-1 in overtime of the decisive fifth game of the USHL's Clark Cup playoffs. The Chicago Steel won the championship, defeating Kivlenieks' Sioux City Musketeers.
There has been speculation since late in his phenomenal season that NHL teams were interested in Kivlenieks and that they might woo him before he ever set foot on the Minnesota State campus.
The Mavericks, don't forget, still have Jason Pawloski, who will be a junior. For all of MSU's inconsistency in goal, he finished last season with good numbers, going 4-2 with a .937 save percentage and a 1.52 goals-against average in the team's last six games. For the season, which included a gap between mid-December and mid-February in which he didn't play, Pawloski was 8-5-2, .920, 2.10.
Then there's Aaron Nelson, the former third-stringer, who got a stretch of starts in January and February and put some real pressure on the other goalies. He'll be a senior. The Mavericks certainly will be on the lookout for a goalie they can bring in late.
Stay tuned ...
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