College Hockey: Minnesota-Duluth's Jack Connolly Wins 2012 Hobey Baker Award

Minnesota-Duluth senior forward and Duluth native Jack Connolly is the winner of the 2012 Hobey Baker Memorial Award as the top player in college hockey.

He was honored on Friday in Tampa, Fla., the site of this year's NCAA Frozen Four, at MacDill Air Force Base.

Connolly, who helped his hometown Bulldogs to their first-ever national title last spring, was second overall to fellow Hobey Baker finalist Spencer Abbott of Maine with 20 goals and 40 assists for 60 points this winter. Nine of his goals came on the power play, while three were game-winners.

Austin Smith of Colgate, the third Hobey Baker finalist this year, led the nation with 36 goals.

“Just to hear my name, it’s a feeling that’s pretty much unexplainable," said Connolly at NCAA.com.

He fashioned a 22-game scoring streak this season from Oct. 14 through Jan. 21 that included nine multiple-point outings. He also posted a five-point game on two goals and three assists in a 5-4 win over North Dakota on Feb. 11, with both of his goals coming on the power play and the second one proving to be the game-winner. 

He notched the final points of his career with a goal and an assist in the Bulldogs' 5-2 win over Maine on March 24 in a semifinal contest at the 2012 NCAA Northeast Regional in Worcester, Mass., one night before being eliminated by Boston College.

Connolly, who was not drafted by an NHL club, tallied 66-131 for 197 points and 156 penalty minutes in 166 outings with UMD, never missing a game in his collegiate career. He led the Bulldogs in points his last three campaigns while also being named a first-team All-Western Collegiate Hockey Association choice in each of those years.

He had 29 points as a freshman, 49 points as a sophomore and 59 points as a junior, including two goals and two assists in four games in last year's NCAA tournament as UMD won its first national championship with a 3-2 overtime win over Michigan in St. Paul, Minn.

Connolly is the 32nd recipient of the Hobey Baker Award and the fifth Bulldog, joining Tom Kurvers (1984), Bill Watson (1985), Chris Marinucci (1994) and Junior Lessard (2004). UMD now has more Hobey Baker Award winners than any other Division I school.

Prior to playing in college, Connolly starred in the United States Hockey League with the Sioux Falls (Iowa) Stampede, with whom he collected 26-46 for 72 points in 58 games in 2007-08.