Oct. 5, 2017
FULL LET'S PLAY HOCKEY RELEASE
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Sophomore goaltender Peyton Jones (Langhorne, Pa.) joins 19 others as part of a 20 man watch list for the 2017-18 Mike Richter Award as announced by Let's Play Hockey and the Herb Brooks Foundation earlier Thursday afternoon.
The Mike Richter Award is in its fifth season and is presented to the most outstanding goaltender in NCAA Division I men's ice hockey.
Jones is joined by two other Big Ten goalies in Minnesota's Eric Schierhorn and Wisconsin's Kyle Hayton who was a finalist for the award in 2015 back with St. Lawrence. Also on the list is 2016-17 winner Tanner Jaillet from the University of Denver and another 2016-17 finalist Michael Bitzer from Bemidji State.
Jones started in 36 games last season posting a 23-10-2 record with a .904 save percentage and a 2.60 goals against average while making 884 saves. His 36 games played, 23 wins and 884 saves are all single-season Penn State records.
Jones was also named an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention and a member of the All-Freshman Team during his first season in Hockey Valley. Jones helped lead Penn State to it's first-ever Big Ten Tournament Championship last season and was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Jones had a career-high 51 saves in a 2-1 championship game victory over Wisconsin.
The Nittany Lions open their 2017-18 slate at Clarkson on Friday at 7 p.m. where Jones will battle another Richter Award watch list member in Golden Knight sophomore Jake Kielly.
Full 2017-18 Watch List
Name School Year
Michael Bitzer * Bemidji State Senior
Ben Blacker Western Michigan Sophomore
Hayden Hawkey Providence Junior
Kyle Hayton ^ Wisconsin Senior
Adam Huska Connecticut Sophomore
Tanner Jaillet $ Denver Senior
Cam Johnson ! North Dakota Senior
Peyton Jones Penn State Sophomore
Justin Kapelmaster Ferris State Sophomore
Jake Kielly Clarkson Sophomore
Merrick Madsen # Harvard Senior
Francis Marotte Robert Morris Sophomore
Jake Oettinger # Boston University Sophomore
Jason Pawloski Minnesota State Junior
Aidan Pelino Bentley Sophomore
Eric Schierhorn Minnesota Junior
Andrew Shortridge Quinnipiac Sophomore
Atte Tolvanen Northern Michigan Junior
Tyler Wall UMass Lowell Sophomore
Joseph Woll Boston College Sophomore
$ 2017 Mike Richter Award winner
* 2017 finalist
# 2017 semifinalist
! 2016 finalist
^ 2015 finalist