Richard W. Best is a Canadian retired ice hockey

goaltender In ice hockey, the goaltender (commonly referred to as the goalie) is the player responsible for preventing the hockey puck from entering their team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. The goaltender mostly plays in or near t ...

who was an All-American for

Michigan Tech Michigan Technological University (Michigan Tech, MTU, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Houghton, Michigan, founded in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, the first post-secondary institution in the Upper Peninsula of Michiga ...

Career

Best was recruited to

in 1963. After a year with the freshman team, Best began playing on the varsity team and split the starting role with

Tony Esposito Anthony James "Tony O" Esposito (April 23, 1943 – August 10, 2021) was a Canadian-American professional ice hockey goaltender, who played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), 15 of those for the Chicago Black Hawks. He was one of t ...

. Despite Esposito being seen as one of, if not the best goaltender in the

WCHA The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's ice hockey-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated a ...

, head coach John MacInnes saw the two as roughly equal. Best started 14 games to Esposito's 17 and the pair combined for 24 wins and led the Huskies to a 2nd-place finish in the conference. MTU overcame

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...

in the WCHA championship game to capture their third conference title in six years. The Huskies received the top western seed for the NCAA Tournament and, with MacInnes continuing to rotate his goaltenders, Rick Best started the semifinal game against

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model us ...

. Best rewarded MacInnes' trust by not allowing a single goal in the game, producing the first shutout in tournament history. After blanking the Bears, some were surprised when Best was not in goal for the championship game, but when Michigan Tech won 8–2 there was little reason to criticize the move. Best continued to share the MTU net with Esposito for the next two seasons, helping the team earn the top seed in the conference tournament the following year, only to see the Huskies stymied in the second round by an upstart

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

squad. As a senior Best was named to the All-WCHA Second Team and was an All-American. He shared the later honor with Esposito, and the two became the only goaltenders on the same team to both be named All-Americans in the same year (as of 2020). After graduating, best played one season of professional hockey for the

Dayton Gems The Dayton Gems were a minor league ice hockey team based in Dayton, Ohio, and members of the International Hockey League from 1964 to 1977, and 1979–1980. In the fall of 1964, the lobby of their new arena, Hara Arena, had a natural gas ex ...

before retiring. He was inducted into the Michigan Tech Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994.

Statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Awards and honors

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Best, Rick 1944 births Living people Canadian ice hockey goaltenders Ice hockey people from Victoria, British Columbia Winnipeg Braves players Michigan Tech Huskies men's ice hockey players Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in the United States Dayton Gems players NCAA men's ice hockey national champions AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans