She's a goalie
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North Allegheny goalie Lindsay Holdcroft. -
Moon Area's Katelyn Pippy stops the puck at the USA Hockey National Select Camp. -
North Allegheny goalie Lindsay Holdcroft makes a save Monday against North Hills.
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Bob Holdcroft might wince some, perhaps grimace or even vicariously feel the crunching pain when a brutish, on-rushing center levels his 5-foot-4 child, the starting hockey goaltender at North Allegheny High School.
Holdcroft, though, explained what he won't do.
"I'm not going to go jumping over the boards every time someone crashes into her."
Her?
Yes, Holdcroft said "her."
Holdcroft, an assistant coach at North Allegheny, is the father of Lindsay Holdcroft, the Tigers' starting goalie who has been doing more than just holding her own with the boys -- she has shined against them.
Heading into this week, Lindsay Holdcroft had the third-lowest goals-against average among PIHL Class AAA goalies, posting a 1.70 mark as she helped the Tigers to a 6-3-2 record.
She isn't the only female who knows what it is like to stand in the crease in a PIHL game, look out her mask and get ready for a brisk wrist shot from a testosterone-filled winger, either.
In addition to Holdcroft, Moon's starting goalie is Katelyn Pippy, and South Park's starting goalie is Katie Vaughan.
All three are juniors, play on all-girls amateur teams and aspire to play Division I women's hockey. In the high school season, however, they play against -- and with -- the boys.
They made similar points that Vaughan summed up succinctly: "I don't want the boys to treat me differently because I'm a girl. I just want to be treated like a hockey player."
In large part, they are. Well, that is after they get dressed in a separate locker room (of course) before joining their male teammates for a pregame talk.
But once the puck drops ...
"If you just walked into the rink after the game started, and they had their masks on, you'd never know they were girls, they would just be goalies," said Stephen Walkom, vice president and director of officiating for the National Hockey League, who lives in Moon and has coached Pippy and Holdcroft in amateur hockey.
First Published January 9, 2009 12:00 am
