Monday, April 4, 2011

AHL, ECHL Honor Ex-Collegians

AHL, ECHL Honor Ex-Collegians

Several former college hockey players have been featured prominently among the postseason honorees of the American Hockey League (AHL) and ECHL. The leagues, which announced their All-Rookie Teams last week, have bestowed additional honors in the past few days.

Brad Thiessen, in his second pro season after a stellar career at Northeastern, has been named the winner of the Aldege “Baz” Bastien Memorial Award as the AHL?s outstanding goaltender for the 2010-11 season, as voted by coaches, players and members of the media in each of the league?s 30 cities.A Pittsburgh Penguins prospect, Thiessen plays for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

In the ECHL, a number of former college players were recently honored, led by rookie of the year Ben Street of Wheeling. Street played four seasons at Wisconsin. A WCHA rival, Kael Mouillierat of Minnesota State, was the runner up for the award.

Kory Karlander (Northern Michigan) was a first-team All-ECHL selection. The All-ECHL second team featured Dov Grumet-Morris (Harvard), Bryan Miller (Boston University) and Ryan Ginand (Northeastern).

Former Colorado College star Brian Swanson was the recipient of the league’s Sportsmanship Award, while Dustin Sproat (Princeton) and Chris Frank (Western Michigan) shared the ECHL Community Service Award. Former Ferris State Bulldog Brendan Connolly of Greenville was one of the recipients of the league’s Plus/Minus Award, sharing the ECHL lead at +28.