TROY, N.Y. – The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men’s hockey team has announced its year-end team awards and eight student-athletes have been recognized as voted on by the players, coaches and staff.
The team’s highest honor is the Most Valuable Player and it was presented to senior captain Ture Linden. Senior defenseman Jake Johnson was named the Best Defensive Player, while goaltender Jack Watson earned Tom Freshman honors. Sophomore defenseman Jack Agnew earned Most Improved Player while the Scholar Athletic award went to graduate student and captain Linden Marshall.
Junior Rory Herrman collected the Community Service Award, senior Jakub Lacka was the Most Inspirational Player and senior Ottoville Leppanen earned the Unsung Player Award. Top Forward went to Linden, Top defenseman went to Johnson and Watson earned Top Goalie honors.
In a school record 44 games for the Engineers this season, Linden led the team with 39 points on 20 goals and 19 assists. Recording 111 shots, he was a +4 with five power play tallies, two game-winners and 26 blocks at the defensive end of the ice. Playing in all 22 ECAC Hockey games, he registered 12 goals and eight assists for 20 points and was a +8.
Johnson, who was chosen as the Best Defensive Player, contributed at both ends of the ice, picking up two goals and 14 assists for 16 points in 40 contests. Post a +5 rating, he was assessed 13 minor penalties for 26 minutes, while blocking 50 shots at the defensive end of the ice. He led a defensive core that allowed 2.53 goals per contest, including 2.59 goals in conference play.
In 19 games, Watson posted a 9-9-0 mark with a 2.39 goals against average and a .922 save percentage, recording three shutouts. He made 519 saves in 1103:15 minutes. In 10 ECAC Hockey contests, he went 5-4-0 with a 2.32 goals against average and a .928 save percentage. Agnew played in 41 games for the Engineers, recording his first five collegiate points on a goal and four assists. Producing a +4 rating from the blue line, he had 36 shots and a team-high 55 blocks at the defensive end of the ice.
A finalist for the Unsung Hero Award and RPI’s nominee for the ECAC Hockey Student-Athlete of the Year, Marshall had a 3.8 cumulative grade point average, finishing both his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering as well as a Master’s Degree in Supply Chain Management. On the ice, he went 9-13-3 in 26 games (24 starts) between the pipes, posting a 2.53 goals against average and an .895 save percentage.
Herrman played in 33 games for the Engineers, recording three goals and three assists for six points. Winning 46.5% of his face-offs, he 26 shots and was a -2, with three minor penalties for six minutes and 19 blocks defensively. Lacka was the team’s fourth-leading scorer, picking up eight goals and 17 assists for 25 points. He had 68 shots and was even for the season. Collecting three power play goals, he had one game-winner.
Leppanen led the Engineers in assists with 21, while scoring nine goals for 30 points, which was good for second on the team. Registering 65 shots, he was a +1, with a power play goal, a shorthanded goal and a game-winner. In 20 league games, he had three goals and 10 assists for 13 points with a +7 rating.
The Engineers went 18-23-3 during the 2021-22 season, including a 10-12-0 mark in ECAC Hockey play. RPI dropped a tightly contested best-of-three playoff series at Harvard, 2-games-to-1, with two of the contests going to overtime.
(RPI Men’s Hockey Photo)
