TAMPA, Fla. — They don’t call him the best in the country for nothing.
Boston College’s Thatcher Demko has won the Mike Richter Award, in honor of the best goaltender in all of college hockey. The junior received the award at Champions Sports Bar at the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel during ESPN’s Talk Frozen Four and #CawlidgeHawkey event, hosted by John Buccigross and Barry Melrose.
Demko finished eighth in the nation among qualifying goaltenders with a 1.88 goals against average and .935 save percentage. He played the third-most minutes in the country—2,361:48—despite coming off double-hip labrum surgery in the offseason. Demko also led the nation in shutouts with 10, a new single-season program record for BC surpassing Cory Schneider.
Demko has received several awards this season, including Second-Team All-American, First-Team All-Hockey East, All-New England, and Co-Hockey East Player of the Year, which he shared with UMass Lowell goaltender Kevin Boyle. He was also a Hobey Hat Trick finalist, losing to Harvard’s Jimmy Vesey earlier in the night. Demko’s 1-0 overtime shutout in the 2016 Beanpot against Boston University will go down as one of the greatest single-game performances by a BC goaltender in program history.
The San Diego, Calif. native is the third winner of this award, following Lowell’s Connor Hellebuyck and North Dakota’s Zane McIntyre. He has been a finalist in each of his three seasons at BC. Demko beat out Boyle, North Dakota’s Cam Johnson, St. Cloud State’s Charlie Lindgren, and Yale’s Alex Lyon.
The award was named after New York Rangers great Mike Richter, a goaltender who spent 14 years in the NHL en route to an induction in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.
A 2014 second-round pick by the Vancouver Canucks, Demko is considered likely to sign soon, ending his three-year run as starter for the Eagles.
Featured Image by Julia Hopkins / Heights Editor
