Rico’s Rise: How Ricardo Gonzalez Grew from Backup to Leagues Elite

Rico’s Rise: How Ricardo Gonzalez Grew from Backup to Leagues Elite

By Brady Beedon

Fraser MI - It takes a while to earn your stripes.

Sometimes, when you move on to a higher level, you have to start at the bottom of the totem pole and earn your way up.

That is exactly what Ricardo “Rico” Gonzalez has done with the Motor City Rockers.

Gonzalez has established himself as one of the best goalies in the Federal Prospects Hockey League.

But the 27-year-old didn’t walk in on day one and take the FPHL by storm, his story is one of progression and patience.

Gonzalez, a Davison, Michigan, native came to the Rockers after five seasons with Chatham University, an NCAA DIII school in Pittsburgh. But his phone wasn’t ringing off the hook after his college days had ended.

“So the first year was definitely a huge eye opening experience,” Gonzalez said. “ I remember my college season had ended, it was pretty heartbreaking. I didn't really get any contacts from any other pro teams or leagues, it wasn't until, about a month after our season had ended, that my coach came to me and said there's a couple teams in the FPHL that were looking for a goalie that could show up right away and Motor City was one of them.”

Head coach Jameson Milam was only a player when Gonzalez first signed with Motor City, and he noticed the dedication he had early. 

“I was fresh in the locker room as well,” Milam said. “Just being an older guy, seeing anybody new come in, you gotta give him a little bit of guff… and kid straight from college, you know, you don't really expect a lot but he seemed like a nice kid and he had a good work ethic.” 

When Gonzalez signed with the Motor City Rockers on March 31, 2022, he came to a team in the middle of a playoff push, that already had an established starting goalie.

“I kind of knew where I stood,” Gonzalez said. “I knew that Trevor Babin was one of the best goalies in the league - if not the best goalie in the league - and I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me.”

Gonzalez only started one game in the 2022-23 season, a 6-2 loss to the Mississippi Sea Wolves. He was pulled after allowing six goals in under 30 minutes in net.

“I was humbled really quickly,” Gonzalez said. “There probably wasn't much thought behind [my first start], like ‘Oh it was another college goalie that we threw in there and got lit up.’”

Gonzalez started the majority of games every year at Chatham, but said it was a process learning how to work back up the depth chart in the professional ranks.

“That second year coming in it was another eye-opening experience,” Gonzalez said about heading into the 2023-24 season with Motor City. “Especially coming from the college collegiate level, I was used to being the guy on my team. I was always the guy, and this was my first experience of not being the guy.”

Gonzalez settled into the primary backup role for the Motor City Rockers in the teams second season. He dressed for all 56 regular season games for the Rockers, starting 21, amassing a 12-9 record as the No. 2 goalie.

“I got some good experience,” Gonzalez said on his first full year with the team. “I got to build some confidence. I got to get some good wins against some good teams. There were also a lot of ups and downs. There were some downs there too where my lack of experience showed, my lack of confidence showed.”

Milam, being a veteran player on the team, knew that the mental side of the game is something that comes with experience.

“He didn't always have great outcomes,” Milam said. “But that's still that mental side of it. I wouldn't say it was hurting him or the team, it was just something you could see he was dealing with daily and I'd like to think that, you know, as a career progresses, as a human grows, those kind of things start to find their way and he's done a really really good job of controlling what he can control and looking to what's next instead of what just happened.

The Rockers qualified for the playoffs in the 2023-24 season. They advanced to the Empire Division Finals by defeating the Danbury Hat Tricks 2-1 in the opening round. One of those two wins came when Babin stopped a then franchise record, 61 saves in an overtime win in game one at Danbury.

Gonzalez didn’t play in the opening round, nor did he expect to see any ice time in the divisional finals against Binghamton, with Babin playing as well as ever.

But down 1-0 in a best of three series, Motor City faced elimination in game 2 at Binghamton.

With eight and a half minutes left in the third period, down 2-1, Babin received a game misconduct for continuing an altercation, forcing Gonzalez to enter his first live game action in over two weeks time.

“There was that immediate ‘Oh crap’ moment,” Gonzalez said with a chuckle. “But then you have to put that away, and you just have to get back to the most basic thing. I just tried to focus mainly on my breathing, and I told myself, ‘You trained all year for this, you're prepared, just go out there and let it happen’. I didn't really have time to think, which was probably a good thing.”

While Gonzalez stopped all eight shots he faced in the third period, helping force the game to overtime. He finally let up a goal on the 12th shot he faced in the extra period, ending the Rockers season and pushing Binghamton to the Commissioner Cup Finals.

“The way things ended in Binghamton, it left a sour taste in my mouth,” Gonzalez said “[It was] as bad as it was Mississippi, if not more because the stakes were so much higher.”

Heading into this season, the goalie situation was up in the air. Babin was loaned to Kalamazoo of the ECHL twice during the 2023-24 season, and during training camp Babin was with Pensacola of the SPHL.

Babin ultimately ended up back in Motor City by the second weekend of the year.

But on Nov. 8, 2024 in a matchup against Monroe, Babin left the game early with an ankle injury, sidelining him for the foreseeable future.

“I trained to be the starting goaltender over the summer,” Gonzalez said. “When [Babin] went down, I felt like I was still prepared and nothing really changed mentally on my aspect of things.”

With no other goalies signed to the active roster, Gonzalez was the starter, for better or for worse.

It was for the better.

Since that night, Gonzalez has played the majority of the games for the Rockers, and has blossomed as one of the league's best.

During that stretch, Gonzalez set two franchise records.

The first came on Dec. 27 2024, when he became the first Motor City goalie to record two shutouts in the same season. He accomplished it in just a two-week span.

The second came on Jan. 11, when he broke Babin’s single game save record, with a 62 save performance, in a shootout loss, against Binghamton.

Gonzalez has far and away faced the highest workload compared to any other goalie in the FPHL. 

As of Jan. 16, Gonzalez has faced 954 shots through 21 games played. That is 190 more shots faced than the next closest goalie.

And he is holding up to the pressure.

Gonzalez also leads the league in total saves. His 876 easily clears second place, Danbury’s Connor McCollum’s 691.

Despite routinely being asked to stop 40-plus shots a night, Gonzalez ranks fifth in save percentage, while having faced nearly double the amount of shots of everyone ahead of him.

So what changed? How has Ricardo Gonzalez turned himself from backup goalie to one of the league's elite?  Gonzalez claims it mainly has to do with the mental side of the game.

“I think the game has mainly grown in my mindset and just my belief in myself and my focus on my own game,” Gonzalez said. “Not comparing myself to anyone else and just keeping my head down and focusing on doing the very best I can every time I get the chance to be in between the pipes. Last year, there were a lot of times where I was in my head and, you know, it was difficult at times. But I think this year I've done a lot better at just going with the flow and letting go of poor performances and moving on to the next game.”

Milam, now his coach alongside being his teammate, can see the difference in Gonzalez’s game.

“He's learned a lot in the last couple years,” Milam said. “His mental side has gotten a lot,  stronger and you could still see he gets mad. He wanted that win on [the Jan. 11 game vs Binghamton] and he was upset with himself. After 62 saves and taking a team to the shootout, he didn't get the result he wanted but here he is on Monday back at it again ready to go.”

Motor City is nearing the midway point of the season, and Gonzalez has earned his role with the Rockers.

“Well, we're going to rely on both [Gonzalez and Babin] back there,” Milam said. “I can't really tell you if there's a 1A or a 1B.” 

Gonzalez is ready for whatever the rest of the 2024-25 season holds.

“We're short on guys right now,” Gonzalez said “It's about that time of year where this sort of stuff happens…  Just like how we started this season, I'm going to keep my head down and just do the very best I can every night to try to help the team win.”