April 7, 1986
For most of the regular season, Archbishop Wood hockey coach Glen Meyers had an excellent view of the goaltender who would carry the team’s fortunes in postseason tournament play. He was seated on the bench right in front of Meyers.
After using Kevin Cluckey as his No. 1 goalie last year, Meyers opened the 1985-86 season in a new league- the Northern Scho- lastic League with a new first-string goalie, Paul McCaffrey. But Cluckey was back in the net for the league playoffs and again last week for the prestigious Flyers Cup, which tonight will crown the best high school hockey team in the Philadelphia area.
“Kevin has incredible natural ability,” Meyers said. “His potential is unlimited if he worked hard at it. But Kevin got complacent, and at the start of the season, I don’t think he was playing up to his potential. It was a shock to him that he was no longer top cat.”
Cluckey has made the most of his playing time in the playoffs, however. He won his first six starts, including the first two Flyers Cup games, and is The Inquirer’s City Athlete of the Week. In the opening round, Wood edged Pennsbury, 3-2, and the Vikings topped Cheltenham, 2-1, in the second round.
Against Pennsbury, the senior stopped 47 of 49 shots, and Cluckey saved an amazing 97 percent of the shots against him in the first two games for a goals-against average of 1.50. Cluckey faced 50 shots in last night’s semifinal against Malvern, but his winning streak and the Vikings’ season ended with a narrow 5-4 loss.
“I wasn’t really surprised that I’m playing now,” Cluckey said before the Malvern game. “I guess I was sort of in a slump, but I played better in practices.”
Cluckey started playing hockey when he was 11 years old, and he attended a Bernie Parent camp for goalies the following year for his only specialized training in the position.”He has lots of outside interests,” Meyers said, “and it’s a credit to Kevin that he responded with a total turnaround. Maybe he learned something that might be valuable to him later in life.
“Kevin has had playoff experience in the past, and there’s a need for consistency in that situation. When you have a hot goaltender, you have to go with him. The goaltending decision has been a difficult one, because I have two other goaltenders of varsity caliber, but the decision was proved to be a correct one.”
The original
