The Hobey Baker Memorial Award is presented
to a deserving recipient on the day before the last
college hockey game of the season. But that doesn’t
mean that college hockey fans, players and media members
don’t think about it all season. This week's Inside
College Hockey's Hobey Tracker takes a look at how the
10 finalists for the award are trending following last
week's league championships and this week's NCAA Regionals.
| BULL
MARKET: STOCK RISING |
| Matt
Gilroy
Boston University
Senior | Defenseman |
 |
He’s
benefited from a season’s worth of hype,
and opened the NCAAs with four assists in the
Terriers’ rout of Ohio State. That said,
he was a non-factor in BU’s win against
New Hampshire; being noticeably absent in your
team’s most important game of the season
to date concerns us. |
| Jacques
Lamoureux
Air Force
Sophomore | Forward |
|
His classy second-period goal against Michigan
stretched Air Force's lead to 2-0 and they went
on to send the first shockwave through the weekend's
events. The nation's leading goal-scorer didn't
disappoint in front of the biggest audience of
the season. |
Viktor
Stalberg
Vermont
Junior | Forward |
|
A Frozen
Four trip for the Catamounts was helped by Stalberg's
very strong weekend. He had a key goal against Yale,
and an assist on the double-OT game-winner against
Air Force. |
| HOLDING
STEADY |
| Chad
Johnson
Alaska
Senior | Goalie |
— |
Johnson
put up some extremely good numbers for a team
that couldn’t put a puck in a soccer net
and on most nights, he was the reason the Nanooks
had a chance to win. But Ryan Miller raised the
bar for goaltenders when he won the Hobey in 2001
and Ocho isn’t in that stratosphere. |
Jamie
McBain
Wisconsin
Junior | Defenseman |
— |
He hit
the wall after the Badgers’ sweep of Minnesota
in early February, scoring just three points –
all of them assists – in his last 10 games.
Still, he managed to lead his team in scoring and
his selection as WCHA Player of the Year says a
lot about the respect that league’s coaches
have for him. |
David
McIntyre
Colgate
Junior | Forward |
— |
The
Raiders were never really in the hunt for an NCAA
Tournament bid and he didn't get the chance to improve
his stock like other forwards (Stalberg, Lamoureux)
from non-traditional powers did in the NCAAs. |
Brad
Thiessen
Northeastern
Junior | Goalie |
— |
Northeastern's
most important player and the Hockey East Player
of the Year demonstrated that he can't do it all,
but the Huskies did have a lead with five minutes
to play against Cornell. Probably should've had
the game-winner in the final minute. |
| BEAR
MARKET: STOCK FALLING |
Louie
Caporusso
Michigan
Sophomore | Forward |
 |
He was
already battling a perception that he might not
be the best player on his team, let alone the nation.
Then he was a no-show (1 SOG) in the Wolverines’
first-round playoff match against heavy underdog
Air Force. We all know how that ended. |
Zane
Kalemba
Princeton
Junior | Goalie |
|
The
image of him intentionally spilling the puck behind
the net in the closing seconds of the third period
against Minnesota Duluth won't help his candidacy.
You can't blame him for the loss, but a win (or
two) definitely would've helped his cause. |
Colin
Wilson
Boston University
Sophomore | Forward |
|
Wilson
had two assists in BU’s win against Ohio State
– but then again, who didn’t have two
points against the Buckeyes in that game? Like Gilroy,
he was suspiciously M.I.A. in the Northeast Regional
final against New Hampshire, but we’re probably
the only people bothered by that occurrence. |
