Five finalists announced for 2014 Ms. Hockey Award

 MINNEAPOLIS ­­—Let’s Play Hockey newspaper announced today the five finalists for the 19^th annual Ms. Hockey Award, presented to the top senior girls’ high school hockey player in Minnesota. The top five finalists include four forwards and one defenseman. The five honorees have scored an average of 34 goals and 36 assists this season and have helped their respective teams to top 10 rankings.

 In addition to their on-ice performance, all five finalists are standouts in the classroom as they check in with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.66. Each of the finalists have committed to a Division I women’s hockey program with four of the players heading to a WCHA school next season, including three future Golden Gophers. 

The finalists for the 2014 Minnesota Ms. Hockey Award are as follows, in alphabetical order (statistics through games of Feb. 12):

Finalist                    Pos.     School                           GP    G       A       TP       College

Sydney Baldwin      D          Minnetonka                     26      12      18      30       Minnesota

Sam Donovan         F          Irondale                          27      43      42      85       Brown

Kelly Pannek           F          Benilde-St. Margaret’s     26      32      51      83       Minnesota

Nina Rodgers          F          Hopkins                         25      26      26      52       Minnesota

Nicole Schammel    F          Red Wing                       27      55      41      96       Minnesota State

 The 2014 Ms. Hockey Award winner will be named at the Ms. Hockey Awards Banquet on Sunday, Feb. 23, at 11:30 a.m., at the RiverCentre in St. Paul. The award is sponsored by Let’s Play Hockey, the Minnesota Wild and Shakopee Chevrolet. Fox 9’s Dawn Mitchell will serve as the banquet emcee, while Fox Sports North’s Jamie Hersch will be the keynote speaker. To order tickets to the Ms. Hockey Banquet, call Let’s Play Hockey at 612-729-0023.

 In addition to on-ice talent, criteria for the Let’s Play Hockey Ms. Hockey Award include academics, community/extracurricular activities, citizenship and coachability.