Star men's ice hockey defenseman receives honor after helping to lead Eagles to Frozen Four final Saturday.

Boston College star defenseman Mike Mottau was awarded the Hobey Baker Memorial Award as the top college hockey player in NCAA Division I.

April 7, 2000

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The Hobey Baker Memorial Award, college hockey's top individual prize was today awarded to Boston College star defenseman Mike Mottau. The Eagles senior captain is coming off a fabulous season helping his team reach the coveted NCAA Frozen Four Tournament.

Mottau, the 2000 recipient in the award's 20th year, was one of three candidates from Boston College, joining teammates Brian Gionta and Jeff Farkas as top ten finalists for this prestigious award. Mike's magnificent season has already been richly rewarded as he was named Hockey East Co-Player of the Year and the Defensive Defenseman of the Year. Not only was he tops defensively, he could also lend plenty of offense.

Finishing fourth in team scoring, Mike has 37 assists on the season and is averaging a point per game -extraordinarily good for a defenseman. This weekend he is capping off a brilliant collegiate career, ranking first overall in career games played as well as most points and assists by a defenseman for Boston College.

While the offensive numbers are outstanding, Mottau excelled in playing defense. The Eagles were ranked third overall in the nation for team defense and first nationally in penalty killing with his help, Mike commonly logged almost half a game in icetime.

A Communications major, Mottau won the highly regarded Walter Brown Award for the second straight year as the top American-born player in New England. All Eagles players are involved in community projects such as youth mentor programs and making hospital visits. Mike is a seventh round draft choice of the New York Rangers in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft and has aspirations of pursuing a pro career.

The Hobey Baker Memorial Award annually honors the top player in Division I college hockey in the U.S. An initial round of balloting is conducted with all 60 Division I college coaches submitting candidates for the ten finalists. These 10 names are advanced to the Selection Committee to determine the eventual recipient of the award. The Selection Committee is a geographically balanced group of 20 members composed of media, NHL scouts and college hockey coaches. Additionally, a fan vote conducted on-line was implemented this year allowing college hockey fans 1% vote in each round of balloting.

This marks the third consecutive year that a Hockey East player has earned the Hobey Baker Award, following Jason Krog in 1999 and Chris Drury in 1998. Hockey East has seen its players take home six of the last ten Hobey Baker Awards (David Emma-1991, Scott Pellerin-1992, Paul Kariya-1993).

Mike Mottau will be honored at a special banquet on Friday, April 14 at the Decathlon Hotel & Athletic Club in Bloomington, MN. In addition to Mike's night of recognition, the Hobey Baker Award Committee will bc honoring its Legend of Hockey, Badger Bob Johnson. Univ. of Wisconsin head coach Jeff Sauer will be presenting the honor and assistant coach and Bob's son, Mark Johnson will be accepting.