McKay shut out for Richter, Hobey

The Associated Press

It was no surprise that Dryden McKay didn't win the Hobey Baker Award as the nation's top men's college hockey player. That he didn't get the Richter Award as the country's top goalie, though, was a bit of a shocker, at least in these parts.

McKay, who racked up 10 shutouts this season and had stunning numbers, especially over the first half of the season, lost out to Minnesota's Jack LaFontaine for the Richter. High-scoring Wisconsin forward Cole Caufield, as expected, won the Hobey.

Interestingly, McKay was a top three Hobey finalist — the Hobey Hat Trick —and LaFontaine was not. It should be noted, however, that those awards have two different committees and different voting windows. It's been reported that the Richter vote came after conference championship weekend (not great for McKay and pretty good for LaFontaine), while the Hobey vote came after the NCAA regional round (when McKay shut out the Gophers in a head-to-head meeting with LaFontaine to get to the Frozen Four).

LaFontaine stopped 46 of 50 shots in the Big Ten title game against Wisconsin for a 6-4 win, while McKay got pulled after giving up four goals on 14 shots in the WCHA semifinal against Northern Michigan. If that was the last impression voters got of two extremely close candidates before turning in their ballots, that might have made a difference. A week later, following that head-to-head matchup, who knows what the result would have been? Perhaps that result was why McKay, and not LaFontaine, made the Hobey Hat Trick.

Following Minnesota State's 5-4 loss to St. Cloud State in the Frozen Four semifinals on Thursday, McKay finished the season 21-4-0 — all against WCHA opponents prior to the NCAAs — with a .924 save percentage and a 1.54 goals-against average. He also had 10 shutouts to raise his career total to 24, two shy of Ryan Miller's NCAA record.

LaFontaine, playing only Big Ten games before the tournament, went 22-7-0 with stats of .934, 1.79 and five shutouts. 

Both goalies, interestingly enough, had series shutouts on the road this season, McKay at Northern Michigan and LaFontaine at Notre Dame.

Although I can live with the result — LaFontaine indeed had a great season — I, for one, will defend McKay on a few fronts: His consistency over three seasons has been incredible. The confidence with which his team plays in front of him is impressive. And the shutout total, no matter who MSU played, is insane. It's hard to get shutouts, and, at one point this season strung together three in a row — all on the road! McKay shut out Bemidji State, Lake Superior State, Northern Michigan (twice), Bowling Green, Michigan Tech and Minnesota — not just the WCHA bottom feeders. 

Finally, I'll add that, unlike LaFontaine and Boston College's Spencer Knight, McKay is not a 6-foot-3 NHL draft pick who makes scouts go gaga when he steps on the ice for warmups. He's 5-11 (maybe) and, who knows, might end up playing five season of college hockey when all is said and done.

As for all of the arguing (and there was plenty on Twitter for an hour-plus after the announcement), it's not like anyone who voted for LaFontaine thinks McKay is terrible. I'm guessing it was a very, very close vote, a flip of a coin, perhaps. It's just tough, I'm sure, for Minnesota State and its fans to swallow this for a second year in a row.

On a positive note, McKay was also named second-team West All-American on Friday (LaFontaine was first-team), becoming MSU's first two-time Division I All-American.