Adrian’s Balsamo and Lake Forest’s DiClemente
Pick Up NCHA Men’s Hockey Weekly Honors
Adrian College senior Dino Balsamo (F - Sterling Heights, Mich.) is the NCHA Men’s Offensive Player of the Week and Lake Forest College junior Boyd DiClemente (G - Peterborough, Ontario) is the NCHA Men’s Defensive Player of the Week, the league office announced Tuesday.
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Balsamo claims NCHA Offensive Player of the Week honors for the third time in his career over a competitive field of nominees after leading Adrian with five goals and six points in a weekend split against a Marian team that is receiving votes in the national poll. In Friday’s 6-3 loss, he posted two goals and an assist. He gave Adrian a 2-0 lead and assisted on the game-tying power play goal 3-3 in the third period. In Saturday’s 5-4 win, he registered his second career hat trick. He scored two second-period goals (including one on the power play) to put the Bulldogs ahead for good at 3-2. Balsamo also took over the NCHA goal-scoring lead with six goals on the season.
DiClemente is the NCHA Defensive Player of the Week after coming up huge in the Foresters sweep of No. 3 St. Norbert on the road. DiClemente recorded his first career shutout Friday night, making 25 saves while blanking the Green Knights, 1-0. He also kept the Green Knights off the scoreboard for the first two periods on Saturday before escaping with a 4-3 victory and a 29-save performance. He finished the weekend with a 1.50 GAA and .947 save percentage, handing SNC just its second weekend sweep by a league foe in nearly 20 seasons.
2019-20 NCHA WEEKLY TOP PERFORMERS
Josh Boyko, Aurora
Boyko remained unbeaten in 2019 with a pair of wins at Finlandia to open NCHA action. In the weekend opener, he shutout the Lions on 27 saves in a 7-0 victory. He then picked up the overtime winner 3-2 on Saturday, making 23 saves.
Ty Enns, Marian
Enns had back-to-back multi-point games as Marian earned a split with No. 8 Adrian. Enns scored a goal and an assist in each game with his tally in the opener of the series proving to be the game-winner. His goal in the finale of the series opened the scoring for the game.
Logan Halladay, MSOE
Halladay backstopped the Raiders to back-to-back one goal games. He stopped a total of 53 shots on the weekend against Northland and currently has a 1.50 goals-against average and .946 save percentage.
Matt Hanewall, MSOE
Hanewall scored a goal in both weekend games for the Raiders. The freshman leads the team with four goals scored on the season and is currently at a +3 with one game-winning goal.
Brad Jenion, Trine
The freshman defender made his mark offensively as the Thunder went 2-0 on the weekend. He started off by recording the last-minute game-winning goal for the team on Friday as they defeated Lawrence 1-0. He followed that up on Saturday by recording the team’s two final goals on Saturday putting Trine up 5-0 before they ultimately came away with a 5-2 win.
Liam Stirtzinger, Aurora
Stirtzinger had three goals including an overtime game winning goal as Aurora went 2-0 to open NCHA play at Finlandia while improving to 4-0 on the season. He had two goals in the opener on Friday with one coming on the power play and then added a goal which came in overtime to defeat Finlandia 3-2 on Saturday afternoon.
Brett Young, Trine
Young picked up a pair of wins in net for the Thunder over host Lawrence University. On Friday he recorded his first shutout of the season as Trine came away with the 1-0 win. Then on Saturday, he followed up allowing just two goals as the team won 5-2. All told, he finished the weekend with 49 saves on a .961 save percentage and a 1.00 goals-against average.