For the second consecutive year, North Dakota senior defenseman Nick Mattson has been named the men’s hockey recipient of the NCAA Elite 89 Award, given to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average among all participants at their NCAA championship.
Mattson received the award at Wednesday night’s Frozen Four championship reception at Fenway Park in Boston.
Mattson, a management major, owns a 3.922 cumulative grade point average. It marks the third time in the award’s six-year history that a UND student-athlete has won the award in men’s hockey, after Mattson received it last year and his former teammate, Brad Eidsness, was honored in 2011.
In 32 games this season, Mattson ranks ninth among NCHC defensemen with 20 points and is a career-best plus-11. He is UND’s leading scorer since the Christmas break, registering three goals and 13 assists in 22 games in that span.
One of 10 national finalists for the Senior CLASS Award, Mattson was also named the NCHC Scholar-Athlete of the Year in March. Last season, he was named to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-America Men’s At-Large Third Team.
