Saint John’s freshman goaltender Saxton Soley (Elk Mound, Wis.) registered a .940 save percentage, making 63 stops, and a 2.00 goals-against average as the Johnnies defeated St. Thomas 4-2 Dec. 13 before earning a 3-2 victory over the Milwaukee School of Engineering (Wis.) Dec. 15. UST received votes in the USCHO.com national poll, while MSOE was ranked No. 13.
Soley made 39 saves in the victory over St. Thomas and 24 more, while allowing a pair of power-play goals, against MSOE.
He became the first freshman to win five games (5-2 record) in a season since Rick Gregory '03 went 6-8-1 in goal during the 1999-00 campaign. Mark Ketzner '97 owns the freshman record with a 12-8-1 record in 1993-94.
Soley currently leads the MIAC (all games) win winning percentage (.714) and is fourth in both goals-against average (2.17) and save percentage (.920). He became the first goaltender to earn Wisconsin's prestigious “Mr. Hockey” award as the state's most outstanding high school hockey player while at Eau Claire Memorial in 2011.
SJU (6-4-1, 1-3-0 MIAC), which has won six games on the ice before Christmas for the first time since the 2005-06 season, returns to action in 2013 with a pair of non-conference games at No. 3 Wisconsin-Eau Claire (Jan. 4) and Wisconsin-River Falls (Jan. 5).
