Gophers’ Mike Reilly is Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year

MINNEAPOLIS (GopherSports.com) – For the second year in a row, Mike Reilly has been named the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and a First Team All-Big Ten selection. The Big Ten announced the honors on Monday, two days after the No. 13 Gopher Hockey program won its second-straight Big Ten regular-season championship.

The Maroon & Gold also garnered Second Team All-Big Ten honors for Kyle Rau, Adam Wilcox and Travis Boyd.

A native of Chanhassen, Minn., Reilly currently leads all NCAA defensemen with 42 points and 36 assists this season (both career highs). Reilly’s 36 assists are tied for second most among all NCAA skaters this year and are the most by a Gopher since Nate Schmidt’s 38 in 2011-12. The Columbus Blue Jackets prospect led the Big Ten with 21 power-play points this season as well as a plus-23 rating and is the first Gophers defenseman to lead the team in scoring since Mike Crowley tallied 56 points in 1996-97. The defenseman, who was the inaugural Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and the first Minnesota player to earn First Team All-America honors since 2009 last season, was a unanimous First Team All-Big Ten selection this year.

A native of Eden Prairie, Minn., Rau ranks 19th all-time at Minnesota with 162 points (66 goals, 96 assists) in 157 career games and has 39 points (19 goals, 20 assists) this year. His next point will give him 40 or more points in each of his four seasons with the Gophers while the two-time team captain has helped Minnesota to four-straight regular-season conference championships for the first time in Minnesota’s modern era. For the second year in a row, the Florida Panthers prospect notched the game-winning goal to clinch the Big Ten title for the Gophers with his 23 career game winners standing as most among active NCAA players. A finalist for the Senior CLASS Award this year, Rau was also named Minnesota’s recipient of the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award this season in addition to his second-straight All-Big Ten honor (Second Team in 2013-14).

A native of Hopkins, Minn., Boyd set new career highs with 36 points and 16 goals this season despite playing in just 29 games. The senior forward missed the entire month of November with an injury, returning to lead the nation with a .271 shooting percentage. The Washington Capitals prospect is also the Big Ten’s best man on the draw (seventh in the NCAA), winning .595 of the 512 faceoffs he’s taken this year. Boyd’s nine power-play goals this season are the most in the Big Ten and one off the NCAA lead.

A native of South St. Paul, Minn., Wilcox posted a 20-11-3 record in his junior campaign with a .909 save percentage and a 2.46 GAA to earn his second-straight All-Big Ten honor (First Team in 2013-14) and third-straight all-conference honor (Third Team All-WCHA in 2012-13). The NCAA active leader in career wins with 71, Wilcox ranks fourth all-time at Minnesota in the category while his 12 career shutouts – including five this season – are one away from tying Kellen Briggs for the school record. The Tampa Bay Lightning prospect leads the Big Ten in wins (20) and minutes played (2,076) while ranking second in save percentage and goals against average.

Junior defenseman Brady Skjei was also named to the Honorable Mention All-Big Ten team after tallying 10 points (one goal, nine assists) in 30 games this season.

Minnesota enters the 2015 Big Ten Ice Hockey Tournament as the top-seed and will play the winner of four-seed Penn State and five-seed Ohio State on Friday, March 20 at 3:30 p.m. CT.