Branden Komm returns for his third season in Boise this fall, and he’s coming off arguably his best campaign as a pro. With Komm splitting time with Landon Bow in the Idaho crease last season, the Steelheads had two goaltenders ranked in the league’s top-10 in goals-against average and save percentage, forming one of the best tandems in the ECHL.
Let’s take a deeper look at Kommer’s stats:
1,072 – Branden Komm played 2,072 minutes between the pipes last season, over 1,000 more than he had ever played in a season during his three year career. Komm didn’t let the increased workload go to waste, earning 19 wins on the season. Komm had 14 wins in his first two years combined in Evansville, South Carolina, Cincinnati, and Idaho.
180 – Kommer earned three shutouts last season to set a new personal best, but that wasn’t his most impressive string of zeroes. Komm had the longest shutout streak of his career and one of the longest by any Steelhead, when he went 180:49 without surrendering a goal from March 22nd to April 1st. Komm earned back-to-back shutouts over the Colorado Eagles and Alaska Aces, and came within 3:57 of a third straight shutout in the season finale in Anchorage.
8 – Komm’s final record was buoyed by his performance down the stretch. He earned eight wins in his final ten appearances, giving up a total of 22 goals in that time.
13 – Was there a better breakaway goaltender in the ECHL last year than Branden Komm? Not according to the numbers. Komm stopped 13 of 14 shootout attempts he faced last year, winning all four breakaway contests he competed in to lead the league in shootout victories.
47 – Komm’s most impressive outing of the season last year may have come on December 30th in Rapid City, when he stopped all 47 shots he faced in a 3-0 victory. Komm stopped 15 shots in the first period, 19 in the second, and 13 in the third to earn his first shutout with the Steelheads. To that point, it was the highest shot total he had ever faced in a game. And just to prove it wasn’t a fluke, Komm followed up a month later with a 46-save effort on 47 shots in Tulsa, another Steelheads win. Between December 30th and January 22nd, Komm faced 40 shots or more in four of five starts and won them all.
11 – In a span of 11 games between November 25th and January 24th, Komm held opponents to two goals or fewer ten times.
1,118 – Komm made 1,118 saves in 2016-17. His previous single-seaosn high was 580.
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