Jan. 30, 2017
By Dan Colleran
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The Vote For Hobey 2017 campaign began in earnest on Monday afternoon as the Hobey Baker Memorial Award Foundation released the 2017 Hobey Baker Fan Ballot.
High-scoring Notre Dame junior forward Anders Bjork and stalwart junior goaltender Cal Petersen have been included on the fan ballot.
Anders Bjork
- One of the nation’s top point scorers this season, Bjork leads the Irish in goals (16), assists (22) and points (38).
- Bjork’s 38 points rank fourth in Hockey East and seventh in the country, while his 16 goals are tied for third in Hockey East and eighth nationally.
- A Mequon, Wisconsin, native, Bjork has five game-winning goals on the season, which leads Hockey East and is tied for first in the nation.
- Bjork has 12 multi-point games on the season and the Irish are 14-5-1 in 2016-17 when he registers at least one point.
- A fifth-round selection by the Boston Bruins in 2014, Bjork reached the 25-point plateau in the 15th game of the season – the fastest any Notre Dame player has reached 25 points under Jeff Jackson.
- Bjork keyed Notre Dame’s 3-2 comeback win over Boston College by scoring a power-play goal and adding the shorthanded, game-winning goal (December 10).
- Bjork – whose father, Kirt, was an All-American with the Irish in 1983 – now has 95 career points (35-60-95) in 102 career games.
Cal Petersen
- Petersen has started all 26 games for the Irish this season, posting a 14-9-3 record to go along with a 2.09 goals against average and a .923 save percentage.
- The Waterloo, Iowa, native’s 2.09 goals against average ranks second in Hockey East and 13th in the country, while his .923 save percentage ranks second in Hockey East and 14th in the nation.
- Petersen has posted five shutouts this year, including a 34-save performance against Alaska (December 31) and a 31-save showing against New Hampshire (January 21).
- His five shutouts are tied for the NCAA lead.
- This past weekend against Boston College, Petersen made his 76th-consecutive start in the Notre Dame net, which is tied for the ninth-longest streak in the NCAA Division I records book.
- A fifth-round selection by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2013 NHL Draft, Petersen has also appeared 77 consecutive games, which is tied for the eighth-longest mark in the NCAA Division I records book.
- Petersen is moving up the Notre Dame career goaltending records books and currently ranks first in save percentage (.923), third in goals against average (2.27), eighth in saves (2,580), sixth in minutes played (5,645:52), eighth in games played (96) and fourth in shutouts (10).
Hobey Process
All 60 Division I college coaches vote for three players from their own conference and three players from the rest of the college hockey. Then, the Vote for Hobey aggregate fan vote’s one percent is factored in and 10 finalists will be announced in the middle of March.
The Hobey Baker Selection Committee, along with a second aggregate of the fan’s one percent vote, will be combined to come up with the “Hobey Hat Trick” which will be announced on March 30.
The 2017 Hobey Baker winner will then be announced on April 7 at the Frozen Four in Chicago.
— ND —
Dan Colleran, associate athletics communications director at the University of Notre Dame, has been a part of Fighting Irish Media since August 2015 and coordinates all media and publicity efforts surrounding the Notre Dame hockey and golf programs. A native of Walpole, Massachusetts, Colleran spent the previous three years working with the men’s hockey and soccer programs at Providence College. Colleran also spent two years as an Assistant Executive Director of Communications & Championships at the Ivy League and is a graduate of Providence College (’06 & ’08G).