The puck stops here: Milton Academy goalie tries to tune out the noise of NHL's interest

MILTON – Think of all the potential distracting thoughts that might be rattling around in the mind of a high school hockey goaltender while he's trying to focus on the ice.

School work. Family concerns. Social life. NHL scouts.

OK, that last one affects only a tiny percentage of netminders. It's an elite group that does, however, count Milton Academy junior Sam Caulfield among its numbers.

The 6-foot-2 Needham resident, who is draft eligible this season, was ranked No. 32 among North American goalies in the NHL Central Scouting's midterm rankings. That's heady stuff, and it's brought a fair share of NHL talent-hunters to Mustangs games this winter.

Caulfield has done his best not to notice, though.

"I haven't really let it affect me too much," Caulfield said Friday night after authoring one of his best games of the season – a 33-save shutout of Thayer Academy in a 4-0 win that got MA back to .500 at 12-12-2. "I'm just focused on each game and each period, each shot, keeping my team in the game. Hopefully (the NHL is in my future), but I'm just making sure I show up every day and give 100 percent."

"We try not to talk about it too much," said Milton Academy first-year coach Jim Gaudet, who has taken over for Paul Cannata, "but Sam knows he's on that list. NHL guys are in and out of the building to watch him. We've had conversations with him about it – how to put that out of your mind and just focus on the present, focus on the game."

If scouts were in attendance Friday, they witnessed a gem as Caulfield was the first star of a game in which the Mustangs were outshot 33-16 by our count.

Asked what he saw from Caulfield, Thayer coach David Hymovitz, a former Boston College player who served with the New York Islanders as a New England-based scout for nine years, said with a laugh: "I see zero up there (on the scoreboard). He made every save he was supposed to. We could have challenged him more, but credit to him, he had a great night."

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All in a day's work for Caulfield, who (unofficially) now boasts a 2.46 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage over 25 games.

"He's always incredible for us back there," said Milton Academy senior forward Ryan Shea, of Norwell, who capped the scoring with an empty-netter. "He kept us in that game and was a huge part of that win."

"We wouldn't be anywhere close to as good as we are without him," agreed senior center Will Cannata, of Milton, who also scored. "He was probably our best player last year and he's been our best player so far this year."

Caulfield deflected credit for this one to his teammates, saying, "I'm happy, but the team played really well in front of me. It's a team game and we all showed up tonight."

Caulfield shows up most nights. Gaudet, a former Babson College assistant, raves about his work ethic, saying he has to drag his goalie off the ice sometimes at practice to let his backups get some work. Gaudet also pointed to Caulfield's elite lateral quickness, which he said is a must-have skill the way the game is played now. "He's able to really get across the crease and make saves that seem like they should be goals," the coach said.

Caulfield agrees that's one of his best attributes, saying, "It's something I've been training with my (personal) coach (on) over the years – making sure I'm covering not only the shot but the guy backdoor just in case there's a pass."

Twenty-six goalies were chosen in last year's draft, and only two of them were U.S. high schoolers – Hampton Slukynsky (Warroad, Minnesota) by the Los Angeles Kings in Round 4, and Rudy Guimond (Taft School in Connecticut) by the Detroit Red Wings in Round 6. Caulfield will have another chance to get drafted if he doesn't go this spring, and he still hasn't made a college decision yet, so there are a lot of unknowns in his future.

But he knows he wants to keep playing hockey.

"It's always been a dream of mine since I was a kid," he said of making a career out of stopping pucks. "I love playing goalie. I love the game. I'm just giving 100% every game."

By the numbers

19: Number of South Shore players on Thayer's roster. The group includes leading scorer Brady Kudrick (15-19–34) of Norwell, fellow junior Mason Shea (11-9–20) of Braintree, senior defenseman Brady Erickson (1-12–13) of Duxbury and promising freshman center Michael Federico (7-5–12) of Hanover. The Tigers are 9-11-5.

13: Goals this season for Cannata, second on Milton Academy to Anthony Sergeyev, who opened the scoring with his 14th. Cannata's came shorthanded in the second period to push the lead to 3-0. "I probably shouldn't have been that aggressive there," he said, "but it ended up paying off. I went to my backhand and it was a nice goal there for us." Joe Feinberg had the other Mustangs goal.

2: Number of former winners of the Colin F. MacDonald Trophy on Thayer's staff. The award, named after the former Thayer student (Class of 1976) who grew up in Milton, has been given to the Most Outstanding Player of the two-game Thayer/Milton Academy season series since 1977. Hymovitz won it as a senior in 1992; assistant Rob McGovern also got the honor during his playing days. The teams wills square off again next Wednesday at Thayer's Valicenti Rink.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Milton Academy goalie Sam Caulfield stays focused despite NHL interest