{"id":49464,"date":"2013-02-27T05:30:15","date_gmt":"2013-02-27T11:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=49464"},"modified":"2013-02-26T23:03:53","modified_gmt":"2013-02-27T05:03:53","slug":"presenting-the-final-ccha-installment-of-the-girl-reporter-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/2013\/02\/27\/presenting-the-final-ccha-installment-of-the-girl-reporter-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Presenting the final CCHA installment of the Girl Reporter Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"
This was an interesting year for the CCHA, and not just because it’s the conference’s last season. While the hockey this year was good, it seemed a shade off the quality we’ve been privileged to see for the past two seasons. It felt like a return to the kind of parity the league experienced in the last decade. Yes, anyone could beat anyone else on any given night, but — as I’ve written often in the past — equal doesn’t mean equally good.<\/em><\/p>\n In addition to that, the league seems to be lacking the impact players that make headlines, change games, turn heads. I’m sure my saying so will anger some people, but I can’t think of a single player from the CCHA who stands out enough this season to be Hobey Baker Award-worthy. Of course, my awards — which don’t come with any actual hardware — have little to do with the year-end honors handed out by the league itself. Sometimes there is overlap. Sometimes there isn’t.<\/p>\n This is just Part 1 of the hardware. There will be more next week.<\/p>\n I can’t think of a single player who has made more of an impact for his team and perhaps changed the fate of a couple of other CCHA teams than Ohio State senior goaltender Brady Hjelle. He’s my player of the year.<\/p>\n Hjelle’s story is an interesting one. He played his first two seasons of hockey with Minnesota-Duluth (2008-10) and then transferred to Ohio State, playing for the USHL’s Cedar Rapids RoughRiders in between. Last season, he played eight games for the Buckeyes in relief of Cal Heeter.<\/p>\n This year, he became the regular starter Thanksgiving weekend when the Buckeyes split with Lake Superior State. His season hasn’t been perfect, but in the second half he helped the Buckeyes take four of six points in series against Notre Dame and Western Michigan and his stats are noteworthy. In overall play, Hjelle’s goals against average is 2.00 and his save percentage is .934; in conference play, he has a 1.88 goals against average and .938 save percentage.<\/p>\n He’s also been named the CCHA goaltender of the week five times this season, earning that honor every time. There’s no doubt in my mind that without him, the Buckeyes would not have a first-round playoff bye — and either Notre Dame or Western Michigan would be pushing Miami even harder for the regular season championship.<\/p>\n I don’t know who the league will pick, but my Coach of the Year is Bowling Green’s Chris Bergeron.<\/p>\n Bergeron inherited a challenging situation when he took over in Bowling Green at the beginning of the 2010-11 season and has done an admirable job of changing the culture of hockey at the once-great program. It’s been slow going for many reasons, not the least of which is how difficult it is to recruit to a last-place team.<\/p>\n Bergeron’s approach, though, is reaping rewards in tangible ways this season. After taking his last-place team all the way to the CCHA championship tournament in Detroit last season, Bergeron had to keep that momentum going — for himself as well as his team.<\/p>\n
\nThere’s nothing wrong with that. I’ve enjoyed the necessity of hockey-by-committee that we’ve seen so much of this year.<\/p>\nPlayer of the Year<\/h4>\n
Coach of the Year<\/h4>\n