Donovan Ricketts Wins SB Nation Goalkeeper of the Year Award

In his second year with the team, Portland Timbers' netminder Donovan Ricketts put together a dominant season on his way to an SB Nation Goalkeeper of the Year award. "The Black Spider" beat out his closest competition, Nick Rimando, 12 votes to 10 as the two dominated the polling among SB Nation's MLS editors.

The Timbers' most notorious "upgrade" from the roster of the John Spencer era, Ricketts racked up 10 Save of the Week nominations and 14 shutouts in 32 games, leading the league in both catagories. Ricketts' averaged 0.97 goals against and 2.88 saves per game this year, helping the Timbers lose only five games over the course of the regular season.

After his arrival in 2012, replacing fan-favorite Troy Perkins (literally, as Perkins won the Fan Player of the Year award in 2011), fans were quick to jump on Ricketts as a part of the Timbers' problem in a lost season. Seen as old and injury-prone, Ricketts struggled with a patchwork back line and a team full of players in front of him that knew there were changes coming in the offseason.

However, The turn-around from 2012 to 2013 has been remarkable and a large part of that can be put on Ricketts, who has returned to the form that saw him take the LA Galaxy to the MLS Cup Final in 2009 and win MLS's Goalkeeper of the Year award in 2010.

Here are a few of Rickett's biggest saves this year. Share your favorite Ricketts moments in the comments below.