It’s not often that college teammates meet in the NLL, with so many of the players coming from junior ranks. It’s even rarer that it is two goaltenders, when most only play the box style. Yet, this happened when the Colorado Mammoth met the Minnesota Swarm in the pre season.
On December 14th, former Davenport University goaltenders Zach Higgins and Alexis Buque faced off between the pipes. They split time together in 2011 with the team.
Higgins is going into his second full NLL season and should assume the starting goalie position. Buque, a rookie drafted this season, won the backup role with Colorado behind former Bellarmine goalie Dillon Ward.
With Davenport, Higgins put up a career 7.72 goals against average and a .607 save percent. He played from 2009-2012 with the Panthers.
Buque played with Daveport in 2011 and 2012 where the Whitby native put together a goals against average of 8.96 and save percentage of .579.
It’s likely the two goalies will face off again at some point this season. Buque isn’t the Colorado starter, and it’s unlikely that he would take over that position, but he should see at least some time in net this season.
For former goalies to be college team mates and meet again in the NLL is a rare thing, and we got to see it this pre season.
