McKee Ivy League Player of the Year

From Cornell BigRed Website:

McKee Named Ivy League Player of the Year, Joins Moulson and Cook on All-Ivy First Team

Trio helped Big Red to its fourth consecutive Ivy League title

March 2, 2005

ITHACA, N.Y. - Cornell sophomore goalie David McKee (Irving, Texas) has been named Ivy League Player of the Year in an announcement made today by the league. He is joined on the All-Ivy first team by junior forward Matt Moulson (Mississauga, Ont.), a unanimous selection, and senior defenseman Charlie Cook (Port Huron, Mich.). The trio led the Big Red to an 8-2-0 record in Ivy League play, a mark that is good for Cornell's fourth consecutive league championship.

McKee, who continues to pile up the saves and accolades, made 207 saves on 222 shots in league play for a .932 save percentage, good for second among Ancient Eight netminders. He led the league with a 1.50 goals against average and was credited with all 10 decisions. McKee was also a second-team All-Ivy selection in 2003-04 as a rookie.

Moulson ranks among the nation's leaders in goals per game and was tied for first among Ivy Leaguers with seven markers. Four of his seven goals came on the power play, which tied for the league lead. He also had six assists for 13 total points to rank third and earned a +5 rating in the 10 games against Ivy League foes. This is the second consecutive season in which Moulson has been a unanimous selection.

Cook, who has been one of the key elements of the Big Red's record-setting defense for the last four years, has also been a threat to score from the blue line. In Ivy League play, he had one goal and four assists for five points, tying him for fourth among league defensemen, and a +6 rating. He was also named to the All-Ivy second team in 2003-04. Cook and Moulson were both integral parts of the Cornell power-play unit that converted on 16-of-49 (.327) opportunities, which ranked first in the league. The next-highest percentage in the league was .220.

McKee, Moulson and Cook will return to action with their teammates on Friday, March 11, in game one of the ECAC Hockey League quarterfinal series against an opponent to be determined. The Big Red holds the No. 1 seed in the tournament and will face the lowest remaining seed after this weekend's four best-of-three first-round series. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m.

2005 All-Ivy League Teams
First Team
Forward: Tom Cavanagh, Harvard, Sr. (Warwick, R.I.)*
Forward: Matt Moulson, Cornell, Jr. (Mississauga, Ont.)*
Forward: Lee Stempniak, Dartmouth, Sr. (West Seneca, N.Y.)*
Defense: Charlie Cook, Cornell, Sr. (Port Huron, Mich.)
Defense: Luc Paquin, Princeton, Sr. (Le Gardeur, Que.)
Defense: Noah Welch, Harvard, Sr. (Brighton, Mass.)*
Goalie: David McKee, Cornell, So. (Irving, Texas)

Second Team
Forward: Christian Jensen, Yale, Jr. (New Canaan, Conn.)
Forward: Mike Ouellette, Dartmouth, Jr. (Kamloops, B. C.)
Forward: Dustin Sproat, Princeton, Jr. (Red Deer, Alberta)
Defense: Ryan Lannon, Harvard, Sr. (Grafton, Mass.)
Goalie: Dov Grumet-Morris, Harvard, Sr. (Evanston, Ill.)

Honorable Mention
Grant Goeckner-Zoeller, Princeton (So., F, Los Angeles, Calif.)
Les Haggett, Brown (Sr., F, Norwood, N.Y.)
Sean Hurley, Brown (Fr., D, Rutland, Vt.)
Grant Lewis, Dartmouth (So., D, Upper Saint Clair, Pa.)
Mike Meech, Brown (Sr., F, Coquitlam, B.C.)
Dan Yacey, Dartmouth (Sr., G, Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta)

Player of the Year
David McKee, Cornell, (So., G, Irving, Texas)

Rookie of the Year
Nick Johnson, Dartmouth (Fr., F, Calgary, Alb.)

*-unanimous selection

so Paquin and Cook tied? Interesting

It's too bad that McKee, the player of the year, wasn't unanimous selection. Hyphen has had a good year but, come on, Ted!

Ivy League Sports Release


[www.ivyleaguesports.com]

I guess unanimous selection implies that they do allow coaches to vote for players on their own team. I think some award voting doesn't allow this, though the only example I can think of is the pre-season coaches (team) poll, which isn't quite the same thing.

Minor nitpick with the Ivy release: "McKee finished second in the country in saves percentage at .943." I know what they mean (finished the regular season), but strictly speaking he hasn't finished anything yet. All post-season (conference and NCAA) stats count - I don't think anyone tracks "regular season stats" for college in the same way that they do for pro sports.

While I'm being nitpicky, I love how they focus on overall stats for McKee and Hyphen when the awards are supposed to be based on stats from Ivy games only. No mention of the goalies' Ivy stats, which are quite impressive as well. I guess it's a press release and citing these stats puts the league in the best possible light. Like I said I'm nitpicking.

In a non-picky vein, it's nice to see that Cornell has the only non-Seniors on the first team. I think these types of awards tend to go to seniors by default or at least seniors are given the edge if the choices are close. Having two underclassmen there points to how successful the program is right now.

[Q]Larry72 Wrote:

Defense: Noah Welch, Harvard, Sr. (Brighton, Mass.)*

[/Q][Q]

*-unanimous selection
[/q]

Unanimous selection as a HACK!

Brian Ihnacak who beat out David McKee for Ivy rookie of the year honors last year and shared ECAC rookie of the year honors with McKee ... nowhere to be seen on this year's All-Ivy roster.

Note also one freshman made the All-Ivy team (HM) this year, Sean Hurley, a Brown defenseman, but it was Nick Johnson of Dartmouth, a forward, who was rookie of the year. More good forwards than defenders, perhaps.

[edit: correcting freshman name on team]

[Q]billhoward Wrote: Brian Ihnacak who beat out David McKee for Ivy rookie of the year honors last year and shared ECAC rookie of the year honors with McKee ... nowhere to be seen on this year's All-Ivy roster.

Note also one freshman made the All-Ivy team (HM) this year, Mike Meech, a Brown defenseman, but it was Nick Johnson of Dartmouth, a forward, who was rookie of the year. More good forwards than defenders, perhaps. [/q]Mike Meech is a forward and a senior. I think you were going for Sean Hurley.

Ihnacak only had 3 points in 7 Ivy games this year. That punk.

Histories of:

All-Ivy First Team: [www.tbrw.info]

POTY/ROTY: [www.tbrw.info]

Cornellian Ivy POTY: [www.tbrw.info]

Cornellian Ivy ROTY: [www.tbrw.info]

Cornellian All-Ivy First Team: [www.tbrw.info]

Broken Record Department: It still amazes me how college hockey's breeding grounds have changed. Never thought I'd see the day when one player from Ontario ends up among the 18-20 kids who get all-Ivy honors. And now it's two years in a row. Western Canadians have completely left Que and Ont guys in the dust.

Even among the US-born players, it's not just MN/MA anymore. In the last two years, the following states have been represented on the All-Ivy teams as much as or more than Massachusetts and Minnesota: California, Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, and Washington. I bet some of these guys were transplants, but I doubt the majority of them were. Unbelievable.

I am afraid that this was posted somewhere else, but I just came across this article about McKee in the New England Hockey Journal.

Apologies if it is a repeat posting.