Hilary Knight, Brianna Decker and Alex Rigsby are on the list of 30 finalists for the Patty Kazmaier Award - the top player in women's collegiate hockey.
It's Knight's 3rd nomination, Decker's 2nd and Rigsby's 1st.
With the offensive firepower on the Badgers, I think Rigsby often gets overlooked, but she currently leads the nation with a .950 save percentage and is s2nd with 890 total saves. Her 1.42 goals against average is the best in the country among goaltenders with more than 15 games played, and second-best among all goaltenders.
There are 12 WCHA players on the list and Wisconsin and Mercyhurst lead the way, with three nominees each.
There are 12 women on the list who also made the list of 30 nominees in 2011.
Hilary Knight Knight was the WCHA Preseason Player of the Year. She is currently the all-time points leader at UW and fourth all-time in NCAA DI women’s hockey history with 256 career points.
On March 1, the list will be narrowed down to 10 finalists.
UWBadgers.com has a page for each of the ladies, including a profile of each of their careers. See it here
I really, really want it to be Hilary Knight. Her career at UW has been nothing short of spectacular. She is suffering from having taken a year off to play for Team USA in the Olympics in 2010. She also hasn't been paired with Decker on a line at UW and her numbers have suffered.
It will be interesting to see if voters look at Knight's body of work or this season - the award is by season, but it might be hard to look past Knight's career. During the Olympics, Knight was talked about as possibly the best women's hockey player in the world. Post-graduation, she legitimately may go to play with the men in Europe.
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