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High school goalie keeps busy during loss by making 98 saves

UNIONDALE, NY - OCTOBER 21: A hockey net sits unoccupied during the game between the New York Islanders and the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on October 21, 2014 in Uniondale, New York. The Leafs defeated the Islanders 5-2. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
(Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

There was bad news and amazing news for Tony Bruns after his team’s loss to Litchfield/Dassel-Cokato on Saturday.

First, the bad news was that his team, Morris/Benson, dropped their season-opener by the ugly score of 12-0.

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Now to the amazing news, which was that Bruns faced a lot of rubber. A lot. So much rubber, in fact, that he ended the game seeing 110 shots, stopping 98 (!) of them, which is believed to be a national and Minnesota state record.

“I was a little surprised,” Bruns told the Star Tribune. “My whole career I’ve had a lot of shots, but never that many. I thought it was just like any other game.”

Facing an inordinate amount of shots is something that Bruns, a senior, is actually used to over his career, as the Star Tribune noted:

Bruns’ remarkable career in terms of workload has gone relatively unheralded. He has finished among the Minnesota leaders in shots faced and saves each of the past three seasons, peaking at No. 3 in the state in both shots (1,018) and saves (888) in 2014-15. Last season, also in a game at Litchfield, he made 75 saves on 87 shots in a 12-0 loss against the eventual section champion Dragons. That performance, which before Saturday would have put him at No. 2 on both the state and national single-game saves lists, went mostly unnoticed.

As you can imagine, Bruns has faced so many shots because his teams aren’t very good. In back-to-back starts last season, he stopped 56 and 75 shots, respectively. Six times in 2015-16 he faced at least 50 shots and previously did so nine times during the 2014-15 campaign.

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So, yeah, he keeps busy when he’s goal; and the fact that Morris/Benson is often found short of players is another reason why. According to the Tribune, Bruns hasn’t had a backup for the last few years, so no matter what the goals allowed column says, he’s not coming out.

Could Bruns hit 100 saves in a game before he graduates?

“I’ll probably have a few more chances to get there this year,” he joked.

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Sean Leahy is the associate editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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