The departure of Kyle Richter has left the starting goalie position wide open. John Riley (above), Ryan Carroll, and Matt Hoyle compete for a spot in the limelight.

Time is ticking.

The first conference game of the season is tonight, but the Harvard men’s hockey team has yet to choose a starting goalie.

“Even at the 11th hour here, we’re still up in the air,” Crimson coach Ted Donato ’91 says. “None of us really know. I wish at this point we said, ‘you know what, I’ve got an inkling that this is going to be it,’ but that’s not the case.”

With the absence of last year’s star goaltender, Kyle Richter, who is taking a year off for unspecified personal reasons, Harvard is left searching for a replacement in the net.

But it’s certainly not easy, as Richter was not only a key asset for the Crimson, but also the best goalie in the league. Last season, the Calgary native posted a .923 save percentage and a 2.19 goals-against average in addition to posting three shutouts, two of which came on consecutive nights. Richter received accolades to boot, earning the Ken Dryden Award as the ECAC’s top keeper.

But while Richter has left big shoes to fill, Harvard has three promising prospects vying for the spot in goal: junior John Riley, sophomore Ryan Carroll, and freshman Matt Hoyle.

“They’re all up to the task of starting, so it’s nice to see them out there competing for the job,” co-captain Jimmy Fraser says.

The oldest of the bunch, Riley served as the Crimson’s backup goalie last season.

He first saw college action in last season’s victory against Yale in which he stopped four shots in four minutes. The next time Riley saw playing time—the ECAC playoff opener against Quinnipiac—the Illinois native recorded two saves.

“[Riley]’s a guy that’s really been one of our hardest workers from the day he’s arrived, both on and off the ice,” Donato says. “The improvement he’s made physically over the last couple years, the intensity with which he practices every day—it’s something that endears himself to his coaches and his teammates. As far as on the ice, he brings a never-say-die attitude towards goaltending. He’s diving all over the place and has got a great quickness. He’s a guy that’s always trying to improve.”

Even so, entering the 2008-09 season, Riley has still only appeared in two games in his college career.

Carroll made his debut last year against No. 15 Boston College. He was in the net for 17:05 of the third period and stopped four of the five shots on goal.

“Carroll’s a bright kid,” Fraser says. “He doesn’t miss much, so you can’t really catch him off guard.”

But Carroll suffered a muscle injury last season and sat out for a considerable portion of the year. As a result, he has only one game under his belt coming into this season. But his lack of experience is not a concern for Donato.

“Even though he didn’t get to have the benefit of games last year, [Carroll] had a half a year of practice, so there’s certainly a level of comfort to his game, and I think he has the chance to get some stuff done for us this year,” Donato says.

“[Experience] definitely has helped,” Carroll says. “Coming in as a freshman, it’s real fast, and now you’re used to the speed, how guys shoot, and it’s a lot easier.”

Hoyle, on the other hand, is a highly regarded recruit who has had solid numbers throughout his pre-collegiate career.

But Hoyle’s rookie status puts him at a distinct disadvantage—he lacks experience and playing time against college teams.

“The one thing that he doesn’t have is experience,” Donato says. “He just hasn’t played at this level. It’s a jump up from where any guy comes in from. He’s looked good early, he’s worked hard, [but] it’s one of those things where we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Though each of the Crimson’s prospects seems solid in his own right, the general lack of experience in the net makes it difficult to determine who will perform best when the pressure’s on. Even after an impressive showing by all three keepers in last Friday’s exhibition game, each contender has yet to play a full game, which only adds to the challenge of choosing a starter.

“It’s a bit of a difficult task, because we really don’t have much to go on other than practice,” Donato says. “It gives a certain level of a guy’s talent capacity and where we’re at, but you really don’t know until you play the games. Some guys look better at practice and when the heat gets turned up they don’t respond the same way, and some guys are the other way—they’re gamers, so to speak.”

But until that choice becomes clear, the battle for the starting job will continue.

Let the games begin.

—Staff writer Courtney D. Skinner can be reached at cskinner@fas.harvard.edu.