The Gridiron Club of Greater Boston announced Friday that Babson senior goaltender Jamie Murray is the winner of the 16th annual Joe Concannon Award, which recognizes New England’s best American-born hockey player in Divisions II and III.
Murray is the first repeat winner in the award’s history.
Murray, the reigning NEHC Player of the Year and Goalie of the Year, posted a .957 save percentage and 1.15 GAA in conference play this season. He led the Beavers to the NEHC title game where they finished an overtime goal away from winning the inaugural conference title.
A native of Scituate, Mass., Murray finished among the nation’s leaders in GAA (1.61) and save percentage (.940). He ends his career at Babson with a 62-20-9 record in 91 starts.
Additionally, Murray has been named an All-American for the third time, while also winning this year’s Sid Watson Award as the national Player of the Year. Murray is one of five finalists for the Humanitarian Award recognizing off-ice charitable work in the community. This is his second nomination for the Humanitarian Award.
“This is a great honor for Jamie, who had a great season and career here at Babson,” said Babson coach Jamie Rice in a news release. “His time here has been special and to be the first to repeat for the Concannon says much about his consistently high level of performance throughout his career.
“Jamie is just a great kid and really focused on his game. He never missed a practice or game and always had that level of intensity and preparation required to be successful against the high-caliber opponents we play in our league and our nonconference schedule. He is the first Babson player to win the award among many worthy nominees we have had considered in the past. He is a very worthy winner for what he does on the ice and even more so, off the ice.”
An extremely competitive field of finalists from other New England teams vied with Murray for this year’s Concannon Award. Senior forward Matt Lemire starred for Massachusetts-Boston, which bested Babson for the NEHC conference title. Senior defenseman Zander Masucci from Williams led the Ephs to their first NCAA tournament appearance. Junior goaltender Marcus Zelzer from Salem State led the Vikings to the MASCAC title.
“This year’s highly competitive play and depth of strong teams in each of the five conferences was evident to anyone watching the D-II/III levels in New England,” said committee chairman Tim Costello in a statement. “There were multiple teams in each conference ranked nationally in the top 15 during the course of the season. Every finalist had a truly outstanding season among many more great performances across the region. All of the finalists are great examples of the college and amateur athletes that Joe Concannon so very much enjoyed covering and recognizing during his tenure as a sportswriter at the Boston Globe. Jamie Murray, with his superb on-ice skills and off-ice contributions to the community make him an ideal selection as this year’s winner of the Concannon Award and the very first in over a decade and a half to repeat as winner of the award.”
The 2016 Joe Concannon Award will be presented at the New England Hockey Writers’ Dinner in April, following the Division I Frozen Four.
