Florida native feels at home in the U.P.

By LINDA BOUVET, LSSU Sports Information Director

When Lake Superior State moves to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association in 2013-14, back-up goaltender Kevin Murdock will have a bit of an advantage. The sophomore transfer played sparingly as a rookie at Minnesota State-Mankato in 2009-10, so he has already experienced WCHA competition.

Murdock, a Florida native who attended prep school in Minnesota, is right at home with hockey in the Great Lakes area.

“Murdock loves it here,” said sophomore Matt Bruneteau, who was Murdock’s teammate when they were middle schoolers at Shattuck St. Mary’s in the small town of Faribault, Minn. “I was in eighth grade and he was in seventh. I lived three doors down from him. We played juniors together, too, and then we both ended up here.”

The Faribault hockey community (population 22,000) is a lot like Sault Ste. Marie’s, and nothing like Bradenton, Florida’s. The Murdock family moved from Wisconsin to Florida when Kevin was eight years old.

“I was surrounded by hockey all of the time at Shattuck,” Murdock said. “All of my classes were full of my teammates. We lived in the dorms. That’s where I met Bruneteau, and I haven’t been able to get rid of him.”

Murdock was introduced to hockey while living in Wisconsin, and was fortunate that rinks were within a 15-minute drive of his home in Florida so he could continue playing.

“Actually, hockey was a lot better back then than it is now,” Murdock said of Florida youth hockey. “There are about 20 players from Florida playing college hockey right now. When I was younger, everyone played roller hockey like the guys in California.”

After prep school, Murdock played for the Lincoln Stars of the United States Hockey League from 2007-09. He also played last season for the Stars after leaving Minnesota State-Mankato. During the 2010-11 season, Bruneteau encouraged Murdock to contact former assistant coach Rich Metro about transferring to LSSU, and they connected shortly after Lincoln was eliminated from the USHL Playoffs. Murdock replaced former Laker Brian Mahoney-Wilson.

“I really like it here,” Murdock said. “The guys joke around, saying ‘I don’t know if it’s because you are a parks and recreation major, but you were made to live in the U.P.’ I like the cold. I don’t know what it is. In Wisconsin we lived out in the country. I said I didn’t want to live on a farm, but wanted to live in a real neighborhood. But after living in Florida, I didn’t like that so much.”

As a backup goaltender to LSSU standout sophomore Kevin Kapalka, Murdock’s situation doesn’t appear, at first glance, to be much different than it was at Mankato. He has a brighter outlook on his future, though, and is preparing for his chance to get regular playing time. Much will depend upon Kapalka’s professional options at the end of this season or next.

“The whole reason I went back to juniors was to get playing time,” Murdock said. “I got to play 50-60 games. I definitely got to play a lot. For goalies, there are only three on a team, and only one gets to play. You wait for your window of opportunity and try to make the most of it.”

So far this season, Murdock is 1-2 with a 2.03 goals-against average and .927 save percentage. His lone win was 20-save performance during a 2-1 victory over Bemidji State.

“I just want to work hard in practice and try to push Knaps however I can, to force him to play at his best all of the time,” Murdock said. “Whenever I get the opportunity, I try to play really well and help the team however I can.”

During weekly sessions with LSSU goaltenders coach Terry Barbeau, Murdock works on aggressiveness, stopping quick shots and making second saves. Murdock is learning what it takes to be a No. 1 goaltender in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, according to Barbeau.

“They support each other,” Barbeau said of the Lakers’ three goaltenders, who are all sophomores. “Everybody wants to play, thank God. But that’s how they get better. You can see the support level for each other.”

So, what is Murdock’s outlook on what Laker fans can expect when LSSU moves to the WCHA?

“There’s a big difference between the Minnesota schools and schools out here,” he said. “Mankato was a lot bigger than Lake State, about 14,000 students. A lot of rinks aren’t on campus. Our rink was downtown, and our practice rink was off-campus as well…I almost felt like there were more fans who didn’t go to the school than did, at least among the teams that are sticking around the WCHA. Minnesota is a big hockey state. Everyone loves hockey. When I went to prep school in Minnesota, I’d be sitting at a friend’s house and we could get any school in the state’s game on TV, depending on where we were. They were college games mostly, but they’d show high school, college and NHL games right in a row.”