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Looking back, the single greatest point in my development as a goaltender was losing a game in the semis at a national championship event that I knew my team would have won had I been more focused. From that point on, I vowed to do all the work I could to never let my team lose a game on account of my mental preparedness or resiliency.

Physically, you're not going to stop everything. Sometimes the shot placement is perfect. Sometimes the other team gets a few lucky bounces. What I've found helps me get over 'bad goals' is to give myself 5-10 seconds immediately after the goal to analyze in a very calm, composed way what I did wrong that caused the goal.

After that quick analysis I put the goal into the back of my mind, promising myself I will revisit it after the game. As long as I truly believe this and know deep down that I'll handle it later, I've found that it doesn't creep back into my thoughts. This trust in yourself doesn't happen right away - it takes time, but if you stick with it I've found it does work.

After the game I take some time to think about each goal I allowed and what I can do to minimize the chances of allowing a goal like that in the future. Sometimes I can point to a loss in focus, other times it's a technical flaw that needs practice to be ironed out.

Either way, it's a measured, reasoned approach and adhering to something like this will help take a lot of the emotional highs and lows out of your game - my results on the rink have been a heck of a lot more consistent.