Goalies bring skill, flair to league

Above, Spade's Cash Cruitt of Andover is one of 10 new Elite League goaltenders playing for Minnesota teams this season. Below, MSP Magazine's Leo Gabriel of White Bear Lake is one of just two goalies who played in the league last season. Photos by Loren Nelson, LegacyHockeyPhotography.com

There’s an oversized dollar sign on one side and a wanted poster on the other of Cash Cruitt’s masterpiece of a face mask. It also includes a hologram of a Benjamin Franklin image — straight off a $100 bill.

“He’s got an interesting name, why not have an interesting mask?” said Spade coach Scott Oliver, in full approval of his 6-foot-4 goaltender’s design taste.

Ten of the 12 goalies on Minnesota-based teams are new to the Elite League this season. Cruitt, a junior who played for Andover last winter and was invited to the USA Hockey’s Select 16 National Development Camp this summer, is one of those newcomers.

“I like it,” he said about the league. “It’s such high-level hockey. There’s a lot of speed, a lot of action in front of you. I also like the exposure. Scouts are looking at you every game.”

Elite League goaltenders, all high school standouts, routinely move on to Division I colleges. And of the four Minnesota-born goalies who played in the NHL last season, three are Elite League alums (Lakeville North’s Charlie Lindgren, Baudette’s Alex Lyon and Grand Rapids’ Hunter Shepard).

White Bear Lake’s Leo Gabriel, who plays for MSP Magazine, is one of the Elite League’s two holdover goaltenders from last season. Cody Niesen of The Base is the other. Both Gabriel and Niesen, who plays for St. Thomas Academy, figure to be frontrunners for the Frank Brimsek Award that goes to the state’s top senior goaltender during the high school season. Niesen turned in the performance of the young Elite League season on Wednesday, earning a 2-0 shutout victory over Shattuck-St. Mary's in Faribault.

“There’s a lot of offense (in the Elite League),” Gabriel said, adding that his advice to first-year Elite League goalies is to, “Expect the unexpected. There’s a ton of throwing pucks … people will shoot it from everywhere. You never know what is going to happen. Be ready for it.”

Gabriel, like Cruitt, has a distinctive design on his mask. Colorful, cartoon-like images pay homage to the video game Crash Bandicoot and the snarling polar bears to his White Bear Lake roots. Gabriel said he and his father, Jon, spent countless hours playing Crash Bandicoot together.

“It seems a little nerdy … it’s an old game,” Gabriel said about the mask, designed by Woodbury’s Steve Herrig. “It’s definitely a little different.”

Cruitt’s black-and-gold mask, designed by Goal Line Graphics in Coon Rapids, has served as an icebreaker with opposing goaltenders.

“They always come up to me and say, ‘Sweet mask, where did you get it painted?’ ” Cruitt said.

The Upper Midwest High School Elite League was founded in 2002 and is model program for player development in North America. It provides the region’s top players with an opportunity to play with and against top competition while maintaining their eligibility to play high school hockey in their respective communities.