Many of the same players and coaches from Johns Hopkins met the media after victories the last two weeks over Maryland and Navy.

None of them seemed as relieved and pleased either time as Michael Gvozden.

The sophomore goalie found himself under scrutiny from the start of the season, simply because he was taking the place of three-year starter (and two-time NCAA tournament most outstanding player) Jesse Schwartzman.

And a five-game losing streak didn't help any, particularly consecutive shreddings at the hands of North Carolina and Duke.

Gvozden, once a coveted prep goalie, was better the last two weeks --- much better.

Not surprisingly, so were the 5-5 Blue Jays.

"I think it's up here," Gvozden said as he pointed to his head after stopping 16 shots on Saturday. "I can thank my coaching staff for that. They helped me relax out there. That's the main thing that I really wasn't doing before this. I just have to keep at it. No let-ups."

No one can expect Gvozden to keep up at quite this pace. In the last two games, he has 29 saves and eight goals allowed, good for a .784 save percentage. No one is that good, and Gvozden hasn't exactly been forced to come up with huge stops in the crucible of a tight game late in the fourth quarter. He's played catch with impatient opponents the last two weeks, with a few above-average saves tossed in.

But it's also vastly better than the first eight games, when more shots on goal made it through (85) than did not (84). And that stems from a lot of factors.

Some of it is better team defense. Some of it is a better ability to hold onto saves rather than deflecting them out to a close defense that is not known for its groundball ability. And some of it is simply the luxury of playing from ahead, with the rest of his teammates sagely managing the game as well as anyone.

And there is something to be said for enduring the ups and downs of a season, especially for a guy who earned more than 90 percent of his 47:27 of playing time last year against Mount St. Mary's.

"Everybody was quick to jump all over Michael when he had a bad game against Carolina," coach Dave Pietramala said. "We all had bad games. The head coach had a bad game, the assistant coaches had a bad game, we were bad at the faceoff, bad on defense, bad on offense. We were just plain-old bad. Unfortunately at Hopkins, like at Notre Dame with the quarterback or Duke with the point guard, those guys get a lot of the blame. Michael took a lot of the blame."

No one's anointing Gvozden an All-American just yet, and nor should they. But very recent history at Hopkins says an uneven goalie during the regular season is capable of putting on a Superman cape in the postseason.

That's what Schwartzman did, rolling up a 10-1 record as a starter in the NCAA tournament over four seasons. And while the big fella didn't always look the part --- or play it at times during the regular season --- he inevitably produced off-the-charts performances in the postseason and helped the Blue Jays win two national titles.

Consider this: Schwartzman entered last year's tournament with a 55.5 save percentage and was mired in a bit of a lull. He wound up stopping 61.4 percent of the shots he faced, reaching double figures in saves for four straight games.

Hopkins would love to get that from Gvozden, but they don't really need it this year to make noise. If the Blue Jays are to make a run next month, it will be because Paul Rabil dominates from the midfield, Stephen Peyser cleans up on faceoffs, an attack led by Kevin Huntley is opportunistic and the Michael Evans-led defense prevents opponents from getting shots off from inside eight yards. Simple as that.

But if Gvozden's last two games are a harbinger for the next five weeks, it might be the push the Blue Jays need to beat the likes of Duke, Syracuse and/or Virginia in the postseason.

"Michael hasn't won us games. He hasn't lost us games," Pietramala said. "What's happening is he's steadily improving, his confidence is steadily growing, his understanding is steadily improving, his leadership is steadily growing. That makes a big difference."

The Blue Jays will find out just how significant that difference is all too soon.

--- Patrick Stevens