Rumpel in the running for NCAA awards
Swift Current’s Joel Rumpel has added a few more accolades to his list of accomplishments. The Wisconsin Badgers junior goaltender has been named one of 10 finalists for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award. The annual award is presented to the top NCAA men’s hockey player in the nation.
Rumpel was named a top-five finalist for the Mike Richter Award as one of the top goaltenders in the country one day earlier. Both awards will be presented at the 2014 NCAA Frozen Four in Philadelphia, which will take place April 10-12 at the Wells Fargo Center.
Rumpel, who was named Second-Team AllBig Ten earlier in the week, was fourth in the nation with a 19-5-1 record at the time. He was sixth in the nation with a 2.00 goals against average and a .931 save percentage.
He has two shutouts this season and nine during his three-year career, tied for second in the Wisconsin record book behind Brian Elliot’s 16.
Rumpel and the Badgers won the Big Ten Tournament this past weekend in St. Paul, Minnesota with a 5-4 win over Ohio State. Rumpel made 28 saves on 32 shots over 67:48. The Badgers will enter the NCAA tournament as the number one seed in the Midwest region in Cincinnati and will face fourthseeded North Dakota in the first round.
“A personal finance major, Rumpel is one of the most active student-athletes at Wisconsin when it comes to giving back to the community. Some of his involvement includes visits to American Family Children’s Hospital, serving as a holehost for the Wisconsin Alliance for Fire Safety Golf Outing and visiting a local elementary school as part of the WiscFit program to promote fitness and nutrition to local youth. He’s also taking part in the team’s new Adopt-A-Player program, which allows local youth hockey teams to adopt a player from the UW hockey team and have them visit in person and correspond through the season,” said a University of Wisconsin Badgers press release.
2014 Hobey Baker Memorial Award Top-10 Finalists
Josh Archibald, Nebraska Omaha; Greg Carey, St. Lawrence; Nic Dowd, St. Cloud State;
Ryan Dzingel, Ohio State; Johnny Gaudreau, Boston College; Shayne Gostisbehere, Union; Kevin Hayes, Boston College; C.J. Motte, Ferris State; Joel Rumpel, Wisconsin; Adam Wilcox, Minnesota.
The 10 finalists were se- lected by voting from all 59 Division I college hockey head coaches and by online fan balloting at www.hobeybakeraward.co m. Next, the 27-member Selection Committee and an additional round of fan balloting (at www.hobeybakeraward.com from March 20-30) will determine this year’s Hobey Baker winner. Criteria for the award include: displaying outstanding skills in all phases of the game, strength of character on and off the ice, sportsmanship and scholastic achievements.