The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) released postseason award recipients for the 2015-‘16 season Thursday, and the Badgers brought home plenty of hardware.
Headlining the Wisconsin recipients are junior goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens, who was awarded WCHA Player of the Year, as well as Mark Johnson, who received WCHA Coach of the Year.
Desbiens is currently in the midst of one of the best single-season collegiate campaigns of all time. This season alone, Desbiens has broke the all-time NCAA single-season shutout record (for men and women) with 18 blank slates, as well as smashing the shutout steak record with a mark of 543:53, over 100 minutes longer than the previous benchmark. This all is in conjunction with her leading the nation in save percentage (.958) as well as goals-against-average (0.77). Desbiens has allowed two goals or more in only three of her 33 starts this season for the Cardinal and White.
Johnson’s résumé is almost equally impeccable this year. Johnson brought the Badgers back to the top of the highly competitive WCHA, winning their first conference title since 2011-‘12. The year started with a remarkable 18-0 record, which led to the team ultimately tying a program record with 24 conference wins in a season. It was Johnson’s seventh time to receive the award, increasing his own current record.
Bucky also showed up strong in the All-WCHA Team rosters. The All-WCHA First Team was made up of half Badgers, comprising of sophomore forward Annie Pankowski, senior defender Courtney Burke and with Desbiens in net. The rest of the All-WCHA First Team was made up of Minnesota Gophers, shedding some light on why contests between these two programs are so consistently competitive.
Sophomore forward Emily Clark and junior defender Jenny Ryan represented the Badgers on the All-WCHA Second Team roster while junior forward Sarah Nurse managed an All-WCHA Third Team spot and freshman forward Sam Cogan found her way onto the WCHA All-Rookie Team. Eleven Badger student-athletes (half of the roster) made the All-Academic Team.
