Mike Clemente shut out Harvard twice in the ECAC hockey tournament -- the first time the Crimson have ever been shut out in back-to-back games.

DSPics.com / courtesy of Brown University

Next to awesome, the word amazing may be the most overused -- and misused -- word bandied about in everyday conversation these days.

It's amazing how often people say something's amazing.

But in this case, the use of the word amazing is both appropriate and accurate.

As to what is most amazing in this story, well, you be the judge.

Is it that Brown -- which won just 3 of 29 games during the regular season, finishing 3-21-5, and was seeded 12th and last in the ECAC playoffs -- went up to Cambridge last weekend to take on fifth-seeded Harvard and won twice: 1-0 on Friday night and 2-0 on Saturday?

Is it that both those shutouts were recorded with a freshman between the pipes?

Or is that the Bears' hotshot freshman goalie, who made 39 saves in the first game and 47 in the second, is not from some hockey hotbed like Canada, New England or Minnesota, but grew up in Great Falls, Virginia?

Or is it (and this is the one that gets my vote) the fact that never before -- not once, not ever -- in Harvard's illustrious hockey history that dates back to 1898, had the Crimson been blanked in back-to-back games?

It's amazing. All of it. Simply amazing.

Unless, that is, you happen to be that freshman goalie, Mike Clemente, or the Bears' head coach, Roger Grillo.

"You could feel it coming," Grillo said. "There's not a great deal of difference between the best teams in our league and the worst. A hot goaltender can close that gap. It's like a magic pill, in that it gives everyone else confidence. Then everything starts to fall into place."

That's what happens when the goalie stops everything that comes his way.

"There were a lot of times," said Clemente, "that Harvard could have scored, but someone on our team saved me by blocking a shot, or knocking the puck away.

"We just outworked them. It was pretty cool. We've been a different team the past month or so."

The difference -- which Clemente modestly declined to point out -- is that, for the past month or so, he's been in the net.

How he came to be there is, yes, an amazing story.

"No one in my family played hockey," he said. "It's kind of embarrassing, but what made me want to play was seeing the Disney movie 'Mighty Ducks' when I was 5 years old. I told my parents right then that I wanted to play hockey. They said they'd take me for skating lessons. They figured it would last a day."

Instead, it has lasted to this very day.

"I wanted to be Wayne Gretzky," Clemente said. "Then I got to try being a goalie and I thought it was much cooler, because I got to play the whole game, instead of 30-second shifts."

Standing 6-2, weighing a wiry 200 pounds, and obviously blessed with excellent hand-to-eye coordination, Clemente could have played other sports. But while he dabbled with baseball, there never was any question in his mind that hockey was his game.

"Even when I was 8 years old," he said, "I didn't want to play football, because I was neurotic about breaking a leg and ending my hockey career."

It wasn't long before he was traveling to play in tournaments, which turned out to be a break for Brown.

"My parents brought me to Providence a couple of times for tournaments," he said. "We loved coming here. It was one of the reasons I wanted to come to Brown."

Before coming to Brown, Clemente played two years with the U.S. National Team Development Program. He'd attracted attention playing for the Washington Junior Capitals in 2006, which led to his moving to Ann Arbor, Mich., to play on the U.S. Under-17 team the following year. Last year, he played for U.S. Under-18 team, posting a 2.88 goals-against average and an .879 save percentage.

He's done even better than that for the Bears. In 16 games, Clemente has a goals-against average of 2.63 and a save percentage of .932, the best ever by a freshman at Brown.

"Having played at the level he did before he got here was a huge plus," Grillo said. "When you've played for your country, there's a lot of pressure and expectations that goes with putting on those colors. Having dealt with that is part of the reason he's having success at this level.

"His size also helps. And he's fierce competitor."

The competition will be tougher this weekend, when the Bears travel to New Haven to take on top-seeded Yale in another best-of-three series in the conference quarterfinals.

"They're fast," Clemente said, "but we're ready."

jdonalds@projo.com