Feb 01, 2019 | Badgers News | 357 views
Spotlight on Jensen Murphy
From the time Jensen Murphy was two years old, she wanted to be a goalie. Murphy grew up watching hockey with her dad, Pat, at their home in Kingston, Ontario and automatically fell in love with the sport.She attended her first NHL game in 2001 when she was four: the Buffalo Sabres vs. the Ottawa Senators.
Murphy didn't leave her seat for the entire game and was focused on the Sabres' netminder who displayed an unconventional style of goaltending. "I was fixated on watching Dominik Hasek the entire time and didn't pay attention to anything else going on. I also wore my hockey helmet the entire game," said Murphy. "I started playing on my first team as a goalie when I was six and I've been a goalie ever since."After that game she was on a mission to become a goalieMurphy is currently the Brock women's hockey all-time leader in goals against average (2.03) and save percentage (.935). She is also second in all-time in career wins (36), shutouts (eight) and total saves (2,497)."Jensen brings a calming presence to our team when she is back there. She gives us confidence in our defensive zone," said head coach Margot Page. "If you have a good goaltender you can steal some wins in this league, and she has." This season, Murphy is second in the OUA with a .947 save percentage and leads the league with a total of 621 saves, which is 128 saves more than the second-place goalie. Murphy is also third with a .643 win percentage.Murphy said her dad has had the biggest influence on her hockey career. She grew up playing road hockey and ministicks in the basement and would substitute anything for a puck, even a pair of socks rolled up and taped into a ball.As her dad Pat says, Jensen out 'hockey-ed' the entire family."If she wasn't stopping pucks on the ice, she would be at home in the basement playing mini sticks with her family, outside playing hockey in the driveway, playing NHL video games, or watching junior hockey games live or watching NHL on TV," said Pat Murphy. "Our family was exhausted from hockey, hockey, hockey."Murphy posted a shutout in her first game on the ice at the age of six.Instead of stuffed animals or toys, Jensen piled every game puck on her bedroom dresser from every shutout she recorded in minor hockey, which is more than 100 pucks according to Pat."My dad is the one who got me hooked on the game when I was young by getting me on skates early," said Murphy. "Whether it was driving me to the rink four times a week for practices and games, coaching my minor hockey team, or founding the PWHL team in hometown of Kingston, my dad has been the most actively supportive person. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have had the opportunities to grow and develop as a goalie to be able to play for Brock in the OUA."