College Hockey:
Minnesota-Duluth’s Connolly named Senior CLASS Award winner

USCHO Staff Report • April 5, 2012

TAMPA, Fla. — Minnesota-Duluth’s Jack Connolly has been named the 2012 winner of the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award, presented to the most outstanding senior student-athlete in Division I men’s hockey.

Connolly is one of three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, and he is a three-time WCHA All-Academic selection.

“Winning the Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award means a lot to me and the UMD hockey program,” Connolly said in a statement. “I always try to do my best in everything that I do whether it be hockey, school or helping out in the community. I am truly honored and proud to receive this prestigious award.”

The award is chosen by a vote of the 58 Division I men’s hockey head coaches, media and fans.

Connolly has volunteered for the Boys and Girls Club of Duluth, Minn., the Pucks for Poverty Program, the Northern Lights Foundation, the Adopt-A-Highway Program and cancer fundraisers.

“‘Class’ is one of the best ways to describe Jack Connolly, so this is certainly a fitting and well-deserved honor for him,” Minnesota-Duluth coach Scott Sandelin said. “Everything he does — on and off the ice — he does with class. I really can’t say enough about what this young man has meant to our program, our school and our community over the past four years.”

The Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award first-team All-Americans were Connolly, Ferris State defenseman Chad Billins, Merrimack forward Ryan Flanigan, Cornell defenseman Keir Ross and Air Force forward Paul Weisgarber.

The second team is Ohio State defenseman Sean Duddy, Alaska goaltender Scott Greenham, Notre Dame defenseman Sean Lorenz, Brown forward Jack Maclellan and Miami goaltender Cody Reichard.

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Guest 64
He’ll win the Hobey as well!!! Go Jack!
Scott Martineau
As your own Eliot Olshansky argued three years ago, if community, character, classroom, and competition ALL HAVE EQUAL weight, a great hockey player who is a solid brother and a solid citizen won when his brother who was a solid hockey player but of EXEMPLARY character, community involvement, and classroom accomplishment to his younger Brother, CHRIS CONNOLLY, A ONCE IN A GENERATION PERSON who is a solid hockey player, should have won the Lowe’s SR CLASS Award that his brother Jack, A FANTASTIC hockey player who is a good citizen, of solid character, and a good student but pales in comparison to older brother Chris, won. If all four categories count, Chris trumps Jack in all but who is the better hockey player, so that is three checks for Chris, one check for Jack. Chris has too much class ever to make the argument for himself, the first 2 time Captain at BU since Jack O’Callahan in the mid seventies, but I have no such comportment prohibiting me from saying that older brother Chris, who won a title with that great BU senior class of 2009 as a freshman who played a key role on that title team [(frankly the last team that could have given the 2012 BC Eagles a run for their money, if only someone would discover that darn portal in the space/time continuum that would allow for Time Travel), but for now it will just make for good parlor debate whether 09 Terriers or 12 Eagles were the better team, but each was a once a decade type team so the fact that they were located about 3 miles apart on Comm Ave but 3 years apart as well, makes the argument that HOCKEY EAST is by far the Elite Conference of the last two decades. When will the mid-west accept what is by now practically established fact?} AND not younger Brother Jack should have taken the Lowes SR CLASS award if the four factors carried equal weight as the web site about the award implies.

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