January 25, 1990
For Malvern Prep goaltender Chris Dempsey, a busy crease is a happy crease. Unfortunately, the Friars’ netminder often has a lot of idle time on his hands.
“The more shots I get, the better,” Dempsey said after facing only 7 shots in a 10-0 rout of Ridley on Friday. “It’s hard to keep your mind on the game when you face seven or eight shots. You feel dumb when you let up a goal.”
Dempsey hasn’t felt dumb very often this year. Going into play this week (Malvern played Peddie School last night), the Friars’ junior had notched five shutouts and had a goals-against average of less than 1.00. Malvern was 9-2-1 in the Eastern High School High League before last night, helped by the improvement of their second-year goalie.
“He’s coming out of the net better this year,” Malvern coach Bob Martin said. “He has more of a Ron Hextall approach. I have a lot of confidence in him. He has a good glove and great flexibility.”
Dempsey, 16, likes to use that glove as often as he can. His best outing of the year came in a 2-2 tie with Haverford School earlier this season when he turned away 36 of 38 shots. It was an unusual shot total for the opponents since the powerful Friars usually allow few scoring opportunities, thus giving Dempsey few chances to display his talent.
“That’s fine with me,” Martin said. “He gets plenty of shots in practice.”
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