UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – For the first time in their careers sophomore classmates Evan Barratt and Alex Limoges have each been nominated for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award as announced earlier Monday morning.
The award is given annually to the top college hockey player in the nation during a presentation at the Frozen Four.
College hockey fans around the world have their chance to voice their opinions as the Phase I fan voting period is open now through Sunday, March 10. VOTE HERE.
Following the conclusion of Phase I, the list of players will be narrowed to a Top-10 and that announcement will be made on March 20. Phase II voting on the Top-10 will take place from March 20–March 31. The fans' vote accounts for a full one percent of the total ballot in each phase in selecting this year's award recipient.
The Hobey Hat Trick will then be announced on April 4 and the Hobey Baker Memorial Award will be presented to the winner on April 1 during the NCAA Frozen Four Championships in Buffalo, New York.
Both Barratt and Limoges are currently tied for second in the nation with 30 points only trailing Michigan State's Taro Hirose who has 35. Barratt has a team-best 13 goals, which is tied for the Big Ten lead and ranks fourth in the nation while his 17 assists are good for fifth in the Big Ten and tenth in the nation. The sophomore opened the season with a new program-best 11-game point streak from Oct. 12 through Nov. 23. During that stretch he also set a new school record registering five-straight multi-point efforts. Barratt has 11 multi-point games this season to lead the team. Barratt's 1.58 points per game ranks second in the nation a mere 0.01 behind Hirose as the sophomore has registered at least one point in 16 of his 19 games played this season.
Limoges' 19 assists are tied for second in the nation only behind Hirose's 24 while his 11 goals tie for fourth in the Big Ten and 17th in the nation. The sophomore matched Barratt through the first semester of play and also recorded a double-digit point-streak which was snapped at 10 games while also having a five game multi-point streak of his own. Limoges is second on the team with nine multi-point efforts this season.
Both Barratt and Limoges have each already surpassed their goal, assist and point totals from last season in just 19 and 22 games, respectively.
The duo represent two of 16 Big Ten players nominated out of the 81 total nominees representing 46 of the 60 NCAA Division I Institutions.