He’s been one of the best net-minders BG has ever seen — working his magic between the pipes for the past four seasons. Now as his senior season draws to a close, Jordan Sigalet could end his great career with college hockey’s top honor.
Last Thursday he was named 1-of-10 finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, an award given to the most outstanding player in college hockey and to be handed out on April 8 in Columbus, Ohio.
“Being in the top 10 was a big shock to me at first,” he said. “It’s a huge honor to be up there with those players and players that have been nominated in the past or have won the award and I’m just thrilled.”
“Having (Brian) Holzinger and (George) McPhee just coming back to get their rings and seeing how it was for them–just to be associated with them here at BG is pretty amazing,” he added.
BG has two Hobey Baker Award winners in its history with the last coming in the 1994-95 season when Holzinger took home the honor. If Sigalet were to win it BG would be only 1-of-4 schools in the 25-year history of the award to have three or more winners.
Sigalet was a second team All-Central Collegiate Hockey Association selection this season as he played in 32 games and recorded one shutout. His save percentage on the season was .915 with a goal-against average of 2.89.
It was a season that earned him the Perani Cup championship for earning the most “First Star” points in the CCHA and one that saw him nominated as 1-of-3 players for the league’s player of the year honor.
He concludes his college career as BG’s all-time leader in save percentage at .915 and holds the second spot for goals-against at 2.98.
However, it’s not his stats that will leave the biggest impression in everyone’s mind this season.
Instead, it’ll be his leadership and hard work through adversity that will resonate through most people’s minds as he played game after game and continuously fought to keep his team in contention. This included making anywhere from 20 to 50 saves on any given night and being just as sharp on the 50th shot as he was on the first.
This effort helped BG earn home ice for the first time in 10 seasons and earned them their best record in over a decade at 16-16-4 and 13-12-3 in the CCHA.
“He has given our team a major lift and given us an opportunity to win a lot of games,” head coach Scott Paluch said leading up to the Falcons’ home series with Western Michigan last month. “The fact that we’re fighting for home ice right now has been a lot to do with his play and he relishes being in that type of leadership position for this team.”
His hard work was appreciated ten-fold when it was learned in December that he was suffering from multiple sclerosis. Something only he and his teammates had known about since he was diagnosed last March and caused him to miss three games.
MS wouldn’t slow him down though as he continued his consistent play and continued to give his opponents fits inside the crease.
He was honored at the CCHA Awards Banquet last week as the Terry Flanagan Award winner for fighting through his obstacles and the adversity.
Sigalet credits his coaches and teammates for helping him along the way.
“They’ve been great and I wouldn’t have played as many games this year if it wasn’t for them standing behind me and understanding my needs,” he said. “The coaches gave me days off when I needed them and the players were there to just pick me back up when I was down on myself– I owe them a lot.”
Those coaches and teammates used words like “courage”, “heart” and “determination” throughout the season to describe the way he battled for them day in and day out refusing to let MS stand in his way. They all saw the leadership he had and made him the first Falcon goalie to ever wear the captain’s “C”.
“He’s the centerpiece to our team,” Jonathan Sigalet said of his brother and teammate following Jordan’s announcement in December. “Our guys feed off him and just watching him work everyday in practice and in the weight room is just an inspiration to everybody else — it encourages us to be better players and better people.”
This strength of character on and off the ice is part of the criteria that goes into consideration with the Hobey Baker Selection Committee. Sportsmanship and academic achievements are the others.
Four goalies were nominated in the final 10; the three others are David McKee (Cornell), Dov-Grumet-Morris (Harvard) and Tuomas Tarkki (Northern Michigan).
Patrick Eaves (Boston College), T.J. Hensick (Michigan), Colin Murphy (Michigan Tech), Marty Sertich (Colorado College) and Brett Sterling (Colorado College) bring up the forward lines in the group. Then Reid Cashman (Quinnipiac) is the lone defenseman of the bunch.
Unfortunately for Sigalet and his teammates, they must wait for the results while watching the NCAA tournament from the stands after being swept by Alaska-Fairbanks in the first round of the CCHA playoffs.
“It was definitely a disappointing way to end the season, but that squad has a bright future ahead of them,” he said. “I wish I had a few more years to play, but unfortunately I don’t, but they’re moving ahead.”
Sigalet has been using the off time to relax and start preparing for his career in hockey after college.
