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Four-year starter Greel steady force in Vikings' net

Wednesday, January, 30 By Nick Curcuru
Correspondent

Of all the positions to play in hockey, goalie may be the most unenviable.

For starters, your job is to get in front of a rock hard puck traveling at times close to 80 mph. Secondly, you have to lug around heavy equipment that hinders your movement towards the puck.

It takes a person with a special mind set and personality to play the position, and for the Rockport Vikings, that person is Bryan Greel.

The Vikings senior captain has been a rock in net since his freshman season, and is enjoying his best year this season with a 2.15 goals against average and two shutouts.

To top it all off, Greel is the only goalie on the Vikings roster, meaning he has to take just as much punishment during games as he does in practice.

"Nobody can score on him in practice either," said Vikings head coach Mike Greel, who is also Bryan's uncle.

Despite the occasional bumps and bruises, Greel enjoys the game more when he faces more shots.

"I like getting shot at during a game," Greel said. "It's sometimes hard to stay focused if you don't face a lot of shots, and it's tougher to get warmed up. Plus it's a lot more fun when you see a lot of shots."

Greel has had a lot of fun this season in the form of shots on goal. The 6-foot-1 netminder has made 334 saves through 13 games this season for the 4-6-3 Vikings, which is 25.7 saves per game.

Greel, who is described as a quiet leader, has also had a knack for making big saves in big situations.

In a game against Minuteman earlier in the season, Greel came up with four saves in the final minute of play to keep the game knotted at 1. His clutch play has drawn praise from his coach.

"Brian has really stepped up under pressure this year," said Mike Greel. "He has been great for us this year and he has also proved he can make stops in flurries. Overall he has been our best player."

Greel has fine-tuned his skills at Joe Bertagna's goaltending camps. The Vikings captain has been going to this camp, held in late August, for seven years and has greatly benefitted from it.

"It's a really good camp," Greel said. "It's a good way to start the season and there is a lot of talent there, it has really helped my positioning and my ability to play the puck."

Bertagna's camp stresses positioning, the importance of being in the right place and rebound control. Greel's play at the camp has not gone unnoticed by Bertagna, a Gloucester resident who knows a thing or two about strong goaltending from his duty as Commissioner of Hockey East.

"At my camps, we look for basic talent and hard work," said Bertagna, who played goalie at Harvard in the early 1970s. "Some kids just have one or the other, but Bryan has both, plus he's a competitor."

Greel's time at the camp has paid off and the proof is in his play. His biggest strengths this season have been his ability to stay in front of the puck and be in the right place. Numerous times this year an opponent has thought to have scored a goal, only to have Greel jump in front and take the shot right in the mid section.

"A lot of the times fans will criticize the shot if it hits the goalie in the gut," Bertagna said. "But that's what a goalie is supposed to do. He got hit in the gut because he was in the right place, and Bryan does a great job of being in the right place."

Greel has already received early acceptance to the Universal Technical Institute in Norwood, where he will attend this fall and study in the Automotive Diesel Technology Program. "Working on trucks has always been a hobby of mine," Greel said. "I want to do something I like when I grow up and that's something I really like to do."

All in all, Greel is definitely happy with the season he is having, but he knows he and his teammates still have a lot of work to do, needing seven points in their last five games to qualify for the state tournament.

"This season has been really good," Greel said. "We've had a lot of close games and it's been a lot of fun. Hopefully we can make it even better by qualifying for the tournament."