Carson Cherepak commits to RPI
RPI commit Carson Cherepak squares up to a shot (photo: MJHL hockey)
A couple weeks ago, RPI picked up a commitment from Goalie Carson Cherepak. Cherepak is a left-catching goalie from Winnipeg who played last season with the Dauphin Kings in the MJHL. While the MJHL is a weak league, Cherepak totally dominated, putting up a 0.921 SV% and 6 shutouts, and earned the league’s Top Goaltender award. He led Dauphin to the MJHL championship with a stellar performance in the playoffs, which won him the MJHL Playoff MVP as well.
Dauphin then moved onto the Centennial Cup, Canada’s Junior A championship, where he once again played outstanding. He was named MVP of the Centennial Cup and its top goaltender after putting up a 0.961 SV% and a 1.19 GAA. Unfortunately, Dauphin then bowed out in the semifinals.
Cherepak is a smaller goalie, listed at 6’0″ and 161 LBs, but he plays way bigger than his size. According to a Neutral Zone report, he’s “aggressive to shooters, taking away any angle to beat him straight up,” which also shows stellar positioning. His athleticism and rebound control are also top-notch according to this report. “Cherepak flies around his crease effortlessly getting to the right spots at the perfect time. He swallows up pucks and did not let any rebounds to dangerous areas.” Finally, he’s “calm, cool, and collected in his crease and was able to settle things down.” From this scouting report, it sounds as though Cherepak has everything you’d want in a goaltender despite being undersized. It also sounds eerily similar to Owen Savory as a small goalie who dominated a weaker junior league with athleticism, aggressive positioning, rebound control and composure in the crease.
Cherepak has already shown up in RPI’s student directory meaning he will be arriving in Troy this Fall. Every member of RPI’s recruiting class is in the student directory except for Alex Aslanidis, meaning that Aslanidis is likely not coming to RPI anymore, and Cherepak is replacing him. While his scouting report is excellent, it’s important to not expect too much from freshmen right away, especially since RPI already has a high-level starter in Jack Watson. We expect him to backup Jack Watson at first. However, Cherepak definitely has the potential to be a high-level starter for the Engineers in the future. We look forward to seeing Cherepak this Fall and can’t wait to watch him over his RPI career! Congratulations to Carson and his family!
