During a 4-3 win over Nichols College Nov. 15, Suffolk University women’s hockey goalie Katelyn Michals reached career save 1,000, with 956 of those having come in a Suffolk uniform. A week later, in the first period of a 4-2 win over Western New England, Michals got to 1,000 saves as a Suffolk Ram.
She became the second goalie in program history to reach 1,000 career saves, following in the footsteps of Lily O’Neil, who did so in November 2023. The uniqueness of going from one 1,000-save goalie in O’Neil directly to another one did not elude Michals.
“It’s an honor to be able to follow in her footsteps,” said Michals. “She was obviously one of the best goalies this conference has ever seen, so it was pretty cool to reach a milestone that only she had gotten to. It was really awesome.”
Michals, a junior who is studying criminal justice and law, began her college career at Assumption University. She played in only one full game and parts of two others in her freshman season, allowing seven goals and making 46 saves.
She needed a fresh start, a better fit. After talking with Suffolk head coach Abby Ostrom and visiting the school, she decided to make the jump to Suffolk, where more playing time was in her future.
“I took that experience and my experience of not getting the same [playing] time and used it to fuel me and prove to myself that I know who I am, and it was really exciting to get another shot,” said Michals.
In Michals’ first season at Suffolk, she made 777 saves, authoring a .911 save percentage as the team went 10-16-1 to return to the Conference of New England playoffs, where they fell to Endicott College in the semifinals. She started all but one game the Rams played that season, becoming a true workhorse in net.
While Michals came in “a little rusty,” in the words of Ostrom, she noticed the vast improvements that took place over the course of the year.
“You could tell from the fall of last year to the spring, you could see the progress she made and the attention to detail she has,” said Ostrom. “All credit to her, she’s worked really hard for it. She’s become one of the best, if not, in my biased opinion, the best goalie in our league. She’s very calm, very collected, very competitive and very reliable back there.”
Ostrom has been impressed by the athleticism that Michals has shown in goal and how it’s allowed her to be a very strong goalie and take away some golden scoring chances from opposing teams.
“She’s an athlete. She’s able to move laterally, and even in practice, make some saves where you say ‘no goalie in their right mind should have that,’” said Ostrom. “She’s pretty strong positionally and she doesn’t get rattled super easily. Even if there’s a night where she’s not as sound as she’d like to be, she competes really hard, still gives it her best and moves on from goals against pretty quickly.”
To begin this season, the Rams are 4-3-1 with all four of their wins coming against CNE foes. Michals has started all eight games and has a 2.99 goals against average and a .930 save percentage, having picked up where she left off last season.
During the Rams’ four-game win streak against Nichols and WNE was when Michals reached the 1,000-save milestone. She recognized the importance of the milestone, but put a lot of the credit on her teammates and family members for getting her this far.
“Everyone in that locker room has been working their entire lives to reach success like that, and I wouldn’t have been able to do that without my teammates,” said Michals. “That just goes to show how much work they’ve put in, it goes to show all the work my coaches have put in and helped me throughout the years. I attribute a lot of it to my dad. [I] wouldn’t be here without my dad and my mom.”
Ostrom, on the other hand, put all the credit on Michals for reaching such an important milestone.
“She is where she is because of how hard she works,” said Ostrom. “She puts in a lot of time, does things the right way and she truly cares about her sport and her position.”
Ostrom further emphasized how pivotal it is to have a goalie like Michals in net every game for a team like Suffolk.
“Any game that Katelyn is in net, we know we have a chance of winning,” said Ostrom. “It’s really nice to have that, to have her back there as a lead by example leader and someone we can trust at the end of the day to make the save, whether it’s an easy one or a 10-bell save coming across the crease and flashing the leather.”
With an upcoming January schedule that features nationally ranked opponents in Endicott, Colby College, Middlebury College and Plattsburgh State University, plus teams in Connecticut College and Bowdoin College that are receiving votes in the national poll, building off the strong start to the season so far is crucial to any success the Rams have in January.
“Getting off to a good start is good, but we need to keep at it and not get too complacent and also know that we’re ready and we can accomplish anything this year,” said Michals.
Whatever happens the rest of the season, the Rams will have Michals in net to help guide them through thick and thin. In the words of Ostrom, that’s a really good thing for a team to have.
