With only two weeks to play in the Atlantic Hockey and ECAC regular seasons and three remaining for the Hockey East clubs, the race for conference awards continues to heat up along with the respective playoff races.
Some candidates in the three New England-centric leagues became clear right from the start, but now is a great time to look at some of the award favorites (counting conference statistics only) before winners are named in about a month. Of course, there will be competition from outside of New England in Atlantic Hockey and the ECAC, but we’ll focus on those candidates who attend school in our region.
UMass has a six-point advantage atop the Hockey East standings and also boasts the top four scorers in league play with sophomore John Leonard (Amherst, Mass.), senior Jacob Pritchard, and Leonard’s classmates Mitchell Chaffee and Cale Makar all averaging 1.1 points per league game. Makar, who has 14 points in his last 11 games and has scored all 10 of his goals in eight Minuteman wins this season, and Boston University junior Dante Fabbro are the only Hockey East blueliners with more than one point per league game.
BU’s Joel Farabee is at the forefront of the Rookie of the Year conversation. He has 20 points in 19 league games for the Terriers, but 14 of those points, including 11 assists, have come in the last 10 contests. In goal, junior Joseph Woll has been Boston College’s key to league success, sporting the third-best goals against average (2.10) and second-best save percentage (.930) in Hockey East games.
