BEVERLY, Mass. – Endicott men's ice hockey senior goaltender Conor O'Brien (Pinellas Park, Fla.) has been selected as the co-winner of the 21st Joe Concannon Award, presented annually to the best American-born NCAA Division II/III college hockey student-athlete in New England. O'Brien shares the award with Babson College senior forward Ryan Black (Pomfret, Conn.).
The Joe Concannon Award was established in 2001 shortly after the passing of the longtime writer for The Boston Globe who had a great passion for the game of college hockey while always advocating strongly for amateur athletics.
O'Brien is the first student-athlete in Endicott men's ice hockey program history to receive the award. Additionally, he is only the third goalie ever to win the Joe Concannon Award, joining Jim Pancyzkowski (Wesleyan University, 2004) and two-time winner Jamie Murray (Babson, 2015-16) on the list.
Black and O'Brien also are the first co-winners of the Joe Concannon Award since 2005. In total, there have only been three classes of co-winners in the award's history.
"From day one, Conor has made our program and community a better place," said Endicott men's ice hockey head coach R.J. Tolan. "He's the most self-confident and competitive person I have coached. He is so committed to his craft, and he has made it almost impossible not to play him in every game, not only over the last season, but for his entire career here at Endicott. Conor always raises the bar and wills himself to be the very best goaltender, captain, and teammate. He has been the backbone of our team, has been a great leader, and is a huge contributor to our success as a program."
This past season, O'Brien backstopped the Gulls to an appearance in the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) title game, but, ultimately, the Gulls fell to the University of New England, 3-2, in overtime. The No. 8 nationally ranked Nor'easters are currently Frozen Four bound after defeating No. 2 Utica last weekend.
Statistically, O'Brien produced arguably the best season among all Division III netminders this year behind a 19-6-1 record, 1.41 goals against average (GAA), a .949 save percentage (665 saves total), and four shutouts.
O'Brien currently ranks No. 1 in Division III in save percentage, No. 2 in GAA, and No. 15 in goalie winning percentage (.750).
For his efforts this season, O'Brien became the first goaltender in CCC men's ice hockey history to receive conference Player of the Year and Goaltender of the Year accolades, respectively. The Goaltender of the Year award marked his second career honor, while his All-CCC First Team selection also was a second-time achievement for his storied career.
Meanwhile, Black finished his season with the Beavers by recording career highs of 19 goals and 20 assists for 39 points.
He was selected as the New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) Player of the Year and recorded the most goals and points by a Babson student-athlete since Johnny Kim '06 back in 2004-05 and the most assists since PT Donato '13 finished with 23 back in 2012-13. Additionally, Black's 39 points are good for the sixth most by any student-athlete in the program going back to the 1992-93 campaign.
He helped the Beavers earn the NEHC title and their first NCAA tournament win since 2013 before losing in the quarterfinal round to No. 3 Geneseo. He is just the second individual winner of the award and third overall for Babson, joining Murray, who, again won the award in back-to-back season in 2015 and 2016.
Some portions of this release courtesy The Gridiron Club of Greater Boston and Babson Athletics
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(Photo Credit - David Le '10)
