Jeff Cooper

Jeffrey D. Cooper is a Canadian retired ice hockey goaltender who was an All-American for Colgate. Unfortunately, Colgate's offense didn't keep pace with the defense and the team finished 10th in ECAC Hockey, missing the postseason entirely in Cooper's first year as a starter.

In Cooper's junior season, the offense was still rather paltry but he and the defense played well enough to give the team just the second 20-win season in program history. He set program records for wins (18), games played (32), and saves (944) and got the Red Raiders back into the playoffs, albeit for just one game. As a senior he played nearly as well, setting a program career record with his 6th shoutout and was named an All-American.

After graduating, Cooper signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins and began playing in their farm system. After an unspectacular season with the Baltimore Skipjacks, Cooper had his breakout campaign with the Muskegon Lumberjacks in 1987. He tied for the league lead with a 3.30 goals against average and was named as a First Team All-Star while helping Muskegon win their conference. Unfortunately, in the postseason the team decided to use Frank Pietrangelo as the starter and Cooper played in just one playoff game as the team marched all the way to the finals. Cooper was never able to recapture the magic he had found in 1987 and played for four different minor league teams over the next three seasons, mostly as a backup. He retired after the 1990 season.

In 1998, Cooper was inducted into the Colgate Athletic Hall of Fame. more than a decade later he became the goaltending coach for the Vermont women's team, resigning in 2014 after the team posted its first 10+ win season.

Statistics Regular season and playoffs Regular season Playoffs Season Team League GP W L T MIN GA SO GAA SV% GP W L MIN GA SO GAA SV% 1979–80 Gloucester Rangers CJHL 26 — — — — — — 3.71 — — — — — — — — — 1980–81 Gloucester Rangers CJHL 36 — — — — — — 3.68 — — — — — — — — — 1981–82 Colgate ECAC Hockey 10 — — — — — 1 3.71 — — — — — — — — — 1982–83 Colgate ECAC Hockey 26 — — — — — 0 4.04 — — — — — — — — — 1983–84 Colgate ECAC Hockey 32 18 — — 1873 121 2 3.87 .886 — — — — — — — — 1984–85 Colgate ECAC Hockey 31 — — — — — 3 3.71 — — — — — — — — — 1985–86 Baltimore Skipjacks AHL 23 6 13 0 1099 77 2 4.20 .867 — — — — — — — — 1986–87 Muskegon Lumberjacks IHL 45 23 21 1 2673 147 2 3.30 .889 1 — — — — — — — 1987–88 New Haven Nighthawks AHL 9 1 6 0 485 37 0 4.58 .852 — — — — — — — — 1987–88 Muskegon Lumberjacks IHL 21 11 5 4 1195 80 0 4.02 .874 5 — — — — — — — 1988–89 Muskegon Lumberjacks IHL 7 3 2 2 428 31 0 4.35 — — — — — — — — — 1988–89 Saginaw Hawks IHL 4 1 3 0 226 16 0 4.25 — — — — — — — — — 1988–89 Indianapolis Ice IHL 9 3 6 0 491 32 0 3.91 — — — — — — — — — 1989–90 Indianapolis Ice IHL 1 — — — 40 4 0 6.00 .778 — — — — — — — — NCAA totals 99 49 — — — — 6 — — — — — — — — — — IHL totals 87 41 37 7 5053 310 2 3.68 — 6 — — — — — — —

Awards and honors Award Year All-ECAC Hockey First Team 1984–85 AHCA East Second-Team All-American 1984–85 IHL First-Team All-Star 1986–87