Gopher goalie Sidney Peters wins 2018 Hockey Humanitarian Award

Northeastern’s Adam Gaudette wins Hobey Baker Award 

St. Paul — Sidney Peters woke up Friday, April 6 with a notification on her phone for a missed call. It was the phone call she’d hoped for and put so much work in for.

The University of Minnesota goaltender, who just wrapped up her collegiate career less than a month ago in the NCAA quarterfinals, was informed she’d been accepted to the Uniformed Services University in Maryland. There, Peters will continue her education for a career in medicine while serving in the Air Force.

And to top the day off, Peters accepted the Hockey Humanitarian Award Friday evening at Roy Wilkins Auditorium.

“Today has been the coolest day of my life,” said Peters, who came to Minnesota from Geneva, Ill. “I had a missed call from the Dean at the Uniformed Services University so I called him back and he offered me a spot with the Air Force. It’s the coolest accomplishment I’ve been a part of.”

The award honors “the college hockey player that most personifies true community spirit through the selfless commitment of leadership, effort and time” and players, male or female, in all three divisions are eligible. Peters won the award over Camil Blanchet (Bowdoin College), Courtney Pensavelle (Yale), Luke Rivera (SUNY Fredonia) and Lauren Spring (Ohio State).

Peters’ numbers may not have been considered the elite of the elite her senior season, but they were certainly above average and provided the Gophers with a backbone on which to build their 24-11-3 season.

She posted a 1.93 goals against average (18th-best in the country) and a .922 save percentage, numbers that give any team a chance to be successful, but it takes a lot more than these statistics to win this award.

How about 830 volunteer hours served in various communities for a qualifying stat? Peters is a certified Emergency Medical Technician with the U of M Emergency Medical Services, working on campus and namely Gophers football games.

“We work with a lot of drunk kids,” said Peters, a kinesiology major with a minor in biology. “I also work a lot in one of the hospitals on campus.”

Peters volunteers with Maroon and Gold Impacting the Community (a development program that sends student-athletes all over the Twin Cities to schools and children’s hospitals). She was also a goaltending coach at Hockey Ministries International in Chicago, but the defining piece of volunteer work she’s completed was an eight-day trip to Haiti to help serve with her favorite charity, Project Medishare in 2016.

The Hockey Humanitarian Foundation donated $3,000 to Project Medishare on Peters’ behalf.

“I felt like I came away with a lot of lessons and a new perspective on my career and life in general,” Peters said. “It makes a bad day at the rink not look that bad at all.

“It also made me realize there’s so many people out there that we can help and there’s so much more we can do.”

And with all that on the schedule, one could wonder how she ever found time for hockey.

“It’s difficult, but it’s rewarding. I got used to working with half a battery,” Peters said. “I’ve enjoyed the last five years. I wish I had more time in college, but I know with this next step, I’ll have more opportunities to be excited about.”

Peters has wasted no time moving on to a new chapter in her life, completely different from goaltending, now that her hockey career is complete. She’ll complete officer training school in Alabama this summer before school starts in August in Maryland.

“I just left my team a month ago, so to find a new team to find a new team to group of people to care about will be special,” Peters said.

The Humanitarian Award announcement proceeded the unveiling of the men’s AHCA Division I All-Americans.

Northeastern forward and D-I leading scorer (30 goals and 30 assists in 38 games) Adam Gaudette earned the Hobey Baker Award, edging Henrik Borgstrom of Denver and Harvard’s Ryan Donato.

Gaudette is the first Northeastern player to receive the award and was the only finalist to attend the ceremony. It was the first time in Hobey history that two out of the three finalists had to miss the presentation. Borgstrom (Florida) and Donato (Boston) are playing for NHL teams competing for playoff positions.

Minnetonka native Jimmy Schuldt (St. Cloud State defenseman) and Forest Lake native C.J. Suess (Minnesota State forward), both First-Team All-Americans, were the Minnesotans among the top 10 finalists.

The post A Heart Of Gold appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

“New” Players Guide Gopher Women in 8-0 Win

There was no offseason rust for the No. 1 University of Minnesota women’s hockey team against Penn State Friday night. Not that there would have been any excuses. Six months removed from its last game, Minnesota had several players back from an extended time off the ice.

The two-time defending WCHA champions got help from a pair of them and more.

The Golden Gophers (1-0-0, 0-0-0-0 WCHA) came out at Ridder Arena in championship form, taming the Nittany Lions (0-1-0, 0-0-0-0 CHA) by going 4 of 5 on the power play en route to an 8-0 win in the team’s opening game.

“I’m very happy with the win tonight,” Minnesota women’s head coach Brad Frost said after the game. “Even though (Penn State) gave up 8 goals, I thought they played tremendous.”

Aside from a slow opening 10 minutes, it looked like Minnesota could have played at the same fast paced level for an additional 60 minutes.

Penn State, making the program’s first-ever visit to Ridder, initially stood toe to toe with the Gophers. The Nittany Lions had a power play and 5-4 shot advantage before the tides turned quickly. Junior defenseman Milica McMillen and sophomore forward Dani Cameranesi both beat PSU goalie Celine Whitlinger 1:32 apart to give Minnesota a 2-0 lead and force Penn State to take a timeout 9:36 into the game.

Both Gophers scored twice Friday, with McMillen’s pair each coming with the team having an extra skater. Cameranesi’s new linemate, Patty Kazmaier finalist Hannah Brandt, had three points (1G-2A) for her 26^th career game with three points or more.

One player who could have had rust against Penn State yet didn’t was redshirt freshman goalie Sidney Peters who earned a shutout in her first collegiate game. The Geneva, Ill. native spent all last season practicing with the team without getting into a game. She found out Wednesday that she would be getting the nod against Penn State.

Peters made the most of it, making 15 saves in front of her family including a first-period breakaway on Nittany Lion forward Shannon Yoxheimer.

“I don’t think there are words to describe how special a moment this was,” said Peters, adding she would always remember her first collegiate save. “Just that one game was truly magical.”

Joining her in having an extended layoff was redshirt sophomore defenseman Lee Stecklein. Spending last season with the United State Olympic Team and being off since February, Stecklein had a pair of shots tipped by teammates for goals.

“Our forwards are incredible. I don’t know how they hit the puck out of the air like that. It’s something that I’ve never been able to do and that’s why I shoot the puck,” she said. “Great tips. That’s what we need and that’s their job.

She also impacted the ice on her own end.

“Obviously Lee was +3 tonight and had a lot of blocked shots,” added Frost. “She was just a calming presence back there and dependable. Now we have her running the power play back there, which she didn’t do her freshman year.”

As the game went on, the play and speed from the blue line in the offensive zone stymied Penn State, whose team featured seven Minnesotans familiar to the Gophers (including freshman forward Caitlin Reilly, sister of Gopher men’s hockey trio Mike, Connor and Ryan).

Brandt, McMillen and Cameranesi scored in the second period to extend the Minnesota lead to a 5-0. In the third period it was Meghan Lorence and freshman Cara Piazza each tallying power-play goals on Whitlinger, who made 40 saves Friday.

Sophomore defenseman Kelsey Cline made it 8-0 12 seconds after Piazza’s first collegiate goal.

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In Friday’s opening game, #6 Boston University defeated St. Cloud State 5-2 with three unanswered goals in the final 4:09 Friday.

Junior forward Rebecca Russo sped past a Huskies defender and beat SCSU goalie Julie Friend to give the Terriers a 3-2 lead that opened the floodgates. Twenty-six seconds after Russo’s goal, returning Canadian Olympian Marie-Phillip Poulin scored her first goal of the season, followed two minutes later by teammate Victoria Bach to put things completely out of reach for St. Cloud State.

Minnesota will face the Terriers tomorrow at 7 p.m. CT.

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