Goaltender Matt Vinc is having a historic season in 2013. The Rochester goaltender has already set new team records and is on the verge of setting a new National Lacrosse League record.
The 30-year-old netminder from St. Catharines, Ontario currently leads the league with 636 saves and is nine shy of breaking the NLL’s record for saves in a single season. Rob Blasdell established the current record of 644 saves with the Albany Attack in 2002.
Vinc is averaging 42 saves per game in 2013, and will set a new league-high against the Buffalo Bandits on April 20th in the regular season finale. Vinc is also on pace to join Dallas Eliuk as the only other goalie to lead the NLL in saves four times.
In Rochester’s loss to Edmonton on April 14th, Vinc surpassed Knighthawks’ Hall of Fame goaltender Pat O’Toole, setting a new franchise record for saves in a single season. Not only did Vinc break O’Toole’s record of 598, but he became the first Rochester goaltender to record 600 saves in a single season. Vinc recently passed Steve Dietrich for second all-time in saves as a Knighthawk. He now has 1,804 saves since coming to Rochester.
Entering Week #16 with a .806 save percentage, the two-time All-Pro could set a new franchise single-season record for save percentage. O’Toole holds the current record at .798. His best month of the 2013 campaign was February, where Vinc did not allow more than 10 goals in a game and had a save percentage over .800 in all five games. Vinc has backstopped the Knighthawks to a league-low 10.40 goals against per game, despite giving up over 53 shots per game.
If Vinc earns the NLL’s Goaltender of the Year Award, he would become the only netminder to win the award three times in his career. He won back-to-back Goaltender of the Year Awards in 2010 with Orlando and 2011 with Rochester.
