At Thursday nights ECAC Awards Banquet, the league announced the recipients of the ECAC's major individual award winners for the 2023-24 season ahead of crowning the ECAC Hockey Tournament champion this weekend in Hamilton, New York. Clarkson left capturing 3 major awards on the Knight, Coach of the Year, Defender of the Year, and Goalie of the Year. These awards were selected by a full nomination and voting process involving the league's 12 head coaches.
Clarkson Head Coach,
Matt Desrosiers was selected as the ECAC Coach of the Year for the 4th time in his career. On the heels of his 400th career win and earning a 18-3-1 conference record, Desrosiers led his team to their 19th ECAC playoff appearance, and 12th showing in the conference semi's. Clarkson also sits on the verge of it's 12 NCAA Tournament Birth.
The ECAC Defender of the Year was
Nicole Gosling. Gosling led the team in points with 36 and was tops with a +30 rating from the blueline. Nicole also led the team with 59 blocked shots so far this season. Gosling was also a finalist for ECAC Player of the Year.
The ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Year was
Michelle Pasiechnyk. Pasiechnyk put up stellar numbers with a 13-3-1 record including five shutouts over the regular season and made 364 total saves. Michelle finished with the 5th best GAA in the nation of 1.23 goals-against average and .945 save percentage, leading the Golden Knights to an 18-3-1 record. Pasiechnyk was also a finalist for ECAC Player of the Year.
Freshman Defense,
Keira Hurry was a finalist for ECAC Rookie of the Year along with being named to the ECAC All Rookie Team.
Other Award Winners were:
ECAC Hockey Forward and Player of the Year: Izzy Daniel.
ECAC Hockey Rookie of the Year: Emma Pais
Tonight the Knights face off against St. Lawrence in the ECAC Semi Finals at 6:00 pm at Colgate's Class of 1965 Arena. The game marks the 12th time the Knights have made it to the Final Four of ECAC play. Clarkson and SLU have meet in the semi's twice, in the 2021 COVID season where SLU won 4-3 and in 2018 when the Knights won 4-2. This is the first time they have met at a neutral location.
Clarkson is 3-1 vs the Saints this year, winning both the non league games back in November, 6-3 & 3-0. They split the ECAC games in January, SLU taking a 1-0 win over at Appleton and Clarkson coming back with a 6-4 win at Cheel the next night.
Tonight's game can be streamed on ESPN+ and Casey Ditzel will have the call on B99.3FM.
