Welch Lone Award Winner

ALBANY, N.Y.—Despite the Harvard men’s hockey team’s late season surge, a push that has thus far propelled the Crimson all the way to the ECAC semifinals, the team went largely unrecognized at last night’s ECAC banquet. The lone player awarded was junior defenseman Noah Welch—a second team all-ECAC selection and second team All-American during the 2002-2003 season—who received the underwhelming recognition as an honorable mention all-ECAC.

This year’s awards were concentrated on Brown and on Colgate, two of the ECAC’s leading teams. Brown senior goaltender Yann Danis, whom Harvard eliminated from the playoffs last weekend, won the Player of the Year Award and the Ken Dryden Award as the league’s top goaltender. The Bears’ Brian Ihnacuk shared Rookie of the Year honors with Cornell goaltender David McKee, and Brown captain Scott Ford was named the Best Defensive Defenseman.

Colgate also received prominent awards. Interim head coach Stan Moore, who guided the Raiders to a 21-11-5 record and the Cleary Cup as the ECAC’s regular season champion, was named coach of the year and Jon Smyth was honored as the league’s Best Defensive Forward.

Whether Harvard was snubbed this year is debatable, given the team’s struggles. The league honors, though awarded to individuals, often mirrors the success of various teams. Last season, for example, the Cornell Big Red (who concluded the regular season ranked No. 1 in the country) placed David LeNeveu and Doug Murray on the First Team and Stephen Bâby and Ryan Vesce on the Second Team. Harvard followed closely behind with two First Team nods—Dominic Moore and Tim Pettit—and Welch on the Second Team.