Notre Dame goalie is Big Ten Player of Year; four Gophers honored

Goalie Cale Morris of conference regular-season champion Notre Dame was named Big Ten Player of the Year and Goalie of the Year on Tuesday. The other major awards were Penn State's Trevor Hamilton as Defensive Player of the Year, Michigan State's Mitchell Lewandowski as Freshman of the Year and Ohio State's Steve Rohlik as Coach of the Year.

Morris, a sophomore, Colo., is 23-7-1 with a 1.93 goals-against average and .946 save percentage for the Fighting Irish, who'll play Ohio State on Saturday for the Big Ten tournament championship. Hamilton, a senior defenseman, has six goals and 23 assists for 29 points. He also has a plus-23 rating. Lewandowski finished with 19 goals and 15 assists for the Spartans. Rohlik, a St. Paul native and former player and coach at Hill-Murray, led the Buckeyes (24-8-5) to second place in the Big Ten regular-season standings and has them in line for a No. 1 seed in an NCAA regional.

The Big Ten also announced its all-conference teams, as selected by coaches and a media voting panel, and the Gophers are represented by only three players: forward Tyler Sheehy and defenseman Ryan Lindgren as honorable mention, and forward Casey Mittelstadt on the all-freshman team. In addition, senior forward Mike Szmatula was a Sportsmanship Award honoree.

The All-Big Ten teams:

First team

Cooper Marody, F, Michigan
Jake Evans, F, Notre Dame
Tanner Laczynski, F, Ohio State
Jordan Gross, D, Notre Dame
Trevor Hamilton, D, Penn State
Cale Morris, G, Notre Dame

Second team
Tony Calderone, F, Michigan
Taro Hirose, F, Michigan State
Mason Jobst, F, Ohio State
Quinn Hughes, D, Michigan
Sasha Larocque, D, Ohio State
Sean Romeo, G, Ohio State

All-Freshman Team
Mitchell Lewandowski, F, Michigan State

Casey Mittelstadt, F, Gophers
Linus Weissbach, F, Wisconsin
Quinn Hughes, D, Michigan
Wyatt Kalynuk, D, Wisconsin
Tommy Nappier, G, Ohio State

MSU Mankato pair, Potulny earn WCHA awards

The WCHA also announced its individual award winners, and Minnesota State Mankato had two honorees: Senior forward C.J. Suess of Forest Lake was named Offensive Player of the Year, and freshman forward Jake Jaremko of Nowthen, Minn., was named Rookie of the Year.

Northern Michigan's Grant Potulny, a former Gophers player and assistant coach, was named Coach of the Year. Bowling Green sophomore Alec Rauhauser was named Defenseman of the Year, and Northern Michigan junior Atte Tolvanen was named Goaltender of the Year.