St. Norbert’s Jacobson national D-III player of the year; Geneseo’s Schultz top coach

LEWISTON, Maine — On the eve of the Division III Frozen Four, some hardware was handed out Thursday night at the Ramada Inn at Frozen Four banquet.

For the entire season in goal, David Jacobson has been a stonewall for St. Nobert as he has led them to the Frozen Four with a 22-1-1 record, a 1.24 GAA and a .935 save percentage. He also has seven shutouts.

The NCHA player of the year added another trophy to his mantle Thursday night as he was named the Sid Watson Award winner as the nation’s top player in Division III hockey.

Sid Watson was Bowdoin’s coach from 1959 to 1983 and led the Polar Bears to the ECAC Division II championship four times. Current Bowdoin coach Terry Meagher was the award’s presenter.

For Jacobson, it was another step in this season’s journey

“I just talked to the guy at the table, actually, [and] I related it to a nice move without a goal,” Jacobson said of the award. “It doesn’t mean anything unless you score. We still have our goal in mind here at the national championship and we look forward to playing tomorrow and we’re getting excited. That’s all we are thinking about.”

He doesn’t believe winning the nation’s top honor will add any pressure to this weekend’s action. The Green Knights are a veteran squad that won back-to-back Frozen Fours in 2011 and 2012.

“We got a real experienced group right now,” Jacobson said. “A lot of guys have been here before and they have seen it, they know what to do. Everyone is treating it like another game and hope we can keep moving forward.”

The junior from Janesville, Wis., has only allowed 30 goals all season. He credits his teammates in front of him for his individual success.

“I give all my stats to my d-core and the backcheck of the relentless forwards,” said Jacobson. “They have helped me out so much this year, especially the d-core. Those guys have been working hard all year, working well with me. Our chemistry has been really clicking and this season has been really successful.”

The other major award that was handed Thursday was the Edward Jeremiah Award as the nation’s top Division III coach. Edward Jeremiah was Dartmouth’s coach from 1937 to 1967.

With two coaches in the Frozen Four winning this award already in Oswego’s Ed Gosek (2007) and St. Norbert’s Tim Coghlin (2008), a first-time winner emerged in 2014 – Chris Schultz from Geneseo.

Schultz has led the Knights to their first Frozen Four appearance with a 23-6-0 record.

Schultz said his team came together after a 5-1 loss to Adrian in November.

“We didn’t compete, we didn’t show up for the game,” Schultz remembered. “It was a big game for us and we didn’t show up. That was the turning point. We had to make a decision as a team – are we going to be a team or are we going to be a very talented group of individuals? We hammered away at them after the Adrian game what it means to be a team. From that point, we have been very good. We’ve had a couple of hiccups against Nazareth and Potsdam, but besides those two games, we’ve had a tremendous run after that stumbling block against Adrian.”

He also said he hope his players remember that they were a part of tremendous hockey games against Oswego in the SUNYAC championship game where they made a comeback, but eventually lost 7-6.

The NCAA handed out the Elite 89 award which is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the NCAA’s championships. This year’s award in Division III hockey went to Brendan Jaeger of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, who is double-majoring in accounting and business administration. He currently carries a 3.97 GPA

The East and West All-Americans were also handed out Thursday.

East First Team All-Americans

West First Team All-Americans

East Second Team All-Americans

West Second Team All-Americans

East Third Team All-Americans