O'Connor Named Co-Player of the Year, Four Players Earn All-Ivy Honors

HANOVER, N.H. – Dartmouth sophomore forward Drew O'Connor was named the 2019-20 Ivy League Men's Hockey Co-Player of the Year and unanimously selected to the league's first team.

In addition to O'Connor, senior netminder Adrian Clark, junior forward Quin Foreman and freshman defender Tanner Palocsik were all honored with spots on the All-Ivy League Second Team.

O'Connor becomes just the fourth player in Dartmouth history to be named the Ivy League Player of the Year and the first since David Jones '08 did so as a junior in 2007. Ross Brownridge '80 and Mike Ouellette '06 were the program's first two recipients of the honor and were recognized during their respective senior seasons.

The New Jersey native shares this year's distinction with Cornell goaltender Matthew Galajda as Ivy coaches could not break a tie between the league's top goal scorer and top netminder.

O'Connor's honor as one of the Ancient Eight's top players came after a regular season in which he was a dominant goal-scoring force, finishing the 29 games with 21 goals. In Ivy play, the forward produced a league-leading seven tallies and 14 points in 10 games. Nearly all of those came at even strength as he notched five goals and six helpers when playing five-on-five.

Additionally, he netted the lone overtime goal of the year for the Big Green, scoring just over a minute into the fourth period at Princeton in early January to earn a season sweep of the Tigers, a team who Dartmouth will take on this weekend in the first round of the ECAC Hockey tournament. That tally was one of two game-winners in Ivy play, a figure that tied for the best this winter.

On the whole, the 2019-20 regular season was a breakout campaign for a player who had quietly gone about scoring 17 goals as a rookie last year. His 21 regular season goals are the most by a Dartmouth player since the 1996-97 season, while also leading all league players and ranking third in the nation. In 22 ECAC Hockey games, O'Connor scored 16 goals, becoming just the second Dartmouth player ever, and the first since Brownridge in 1980, to lead the league in goals in conference games, a span of 40 years between occurrences.

This was O'Connor's second honor after landing on the second team a season ago, the only rookie to make either the first or second team. He becomes just the sixth Dartmouth player to unanimously be named to the top team.

Foreman is one of the most underrated players in the Ivy League and ECAC Hockey, but has also been one of the most consistent in his three years. The Needham, Massachusetts, native was third in the Ivy League in points in conference games with 12. He did so on the strength of a league-best 10 assists, two more than any other player. The winger had points in all but two Ivy games and posted multiple assists in three Ancient Eight contests. Both of his goals in league games came on the road at Harvard and Yale.

In total, Foreman finished second on the team in scoring with 24 points on 10 goals and 14 assists, proving to be a driving force in Dartmouth finishing the regular season as one of the league's top offensive teams.

Some of that offense was driven by defense as Palocsik posted one of the best debuts by a Big Green blueliner in recent memory. The Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, native recorded 21 points this year, becoming the first rookie d-man with 20 points in a season for the Green and White since 2007-08 and the first defenseman regardless of class to reach the mark since 2011-12.

Palocsik's 18 assists are the fourth most by a freshman defenseman in Dartmouth history and the most since Grant Lewis had 22 (the record) in 2003-04. He leads all first-year blueliner in ECAC Hockey and third in the nation in assists, just one back of the leaders, while also fifth in the nation in total points, one back of the top spot. He is second in ECAC Hockey in freshman scoring behind only Harvard's Nick Abruzzese, the Ivy League's unanimous Rookie of the Year.

For Clark, this marked his second straight All-Ivy League honor after making the first team a season ago. Clark was 6-3-0 in Ivy games in 2019-20, second in wins behind only Galajda. In those nine games, the Toronto native posted a .911 save percentage and a 2.58 goals-against average.

Clark is tied for the program's all-time lead in shutouts with seven in his career with one more moving him into first place in the 115-year history of Dartmouth men's hockey.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Matthew Galajda, Cornell (Jr., G – Aurora, Ontario, Canada)
Drew O'Connor, Dartmouth (So., F – Chatham, N.J.)

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
* Nick Abruzzese, Harvard (Fr., F – Slate Hill, N.Y.)

COACH OF THE YEAR
* Mike Schafer, Cornell

FIRST TEAM ALL-IVY
* Morgan Barron, Cornell (Jr., F – Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada)
* Drew O'Connor, Dartmouth (So., F – Chatham, N.J.)
* Nick Abruzzese, Harvard (Fr., F – Slate Hill, N.Y.)
* Yanni Kaldis, Cornell (Sr., D – Montreal, Quebec, Canada)
* Jack Rathbone, Harvard (So., D – West Roxbury, Mass.)
* Matthew Galajda, Cornell (Jr., G – Aurora, Ontario, Canada)

SECOND TEAM ALL-IVY^
Quin Foreman, Dartmouth (Jr., F – Needham, Mass.)
Jack Drury, Harvard (So., F – Winnetka, Ill.)
Curtis Hall, Yale (So., F – Chagrin Falls, Ohio)
Zach Giuttari, Brown (Sr., D – Warwick, R.I.)
Tanner Palocsik, Dartmouth (Fr., D – Aliquippa, Pa.)
Gavin Nieto, Brown (Sr., G – Yorba Linda, Calif.)
Adrian Clark, Dartmouth (Sr., G – Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

HONORABLE MENTION ALL-IVY
Jackson Cressey, Princeton (Sr., F – Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)
Justin Pearson, Yale (So., F – Nashua, N.H.)
Sam Malinski, Cornell (Fr., D – Lakeville, Minn.)
Reilly Walsh, Harvard (Jr., D – Andover, N.H.)
Mitchell Gibson, Harvard (Fr., G – Phoenixville, Pa.)

* Unanimous Selection
^ Second Team Expanded Due to Tie In Voting

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