Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Carrozzi Named OHL Goaltender of the Year

Press Release

Toronto, ON – The Ontario Hockey League today announced that Chris Carrozzi of the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors is the OHL’s Goaltender of the Year for the 2009-10 season.

Carrozzi, a 20-year-old from Nepean, ON, finished his fourth career OHL season with a 19-10-3-2 record and tied for a league-high with five shutout victories. He posted the second-best goals-against-average in the league with a mark of 2.36 and tied for the fourth-best save percentage at .916. He becomes the third member of the Majors’ organization to win this award following Bujar Amidovski in 1997-98, and Andy Chiodo in 2002-03.

“It feels great to win this award and I owe a big thank you to the Majors organization and to my teammates for helping me this season,” Carrozzi said. “We are a very defensive team that always worked hard, and it is nice to get some recognition this year for how well our team played.”

Carrozzi held opponents to two or less goals in 16 of his 34 starts and made 30 or more saves in six games this season including a season-high 50 saves February 18 despite a 5-1 loss to the Windsor Spitfires. The Majors’ goaltending tandem of Carrozzi and JP Anderson won the Dave Pinkney Trophy combining to allow a league-low 175 goals-against. Carrozzi represented the Majors and the Eastern Conference at the 2010 OHL All-Star Classic and was named the OHL’s Goaltender of the Month for October. He was selected in the sixth round of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft by the Atlanta Thrashers.

“Chris put the work in for four years and earned this award over some very elite goaltenders in this league,” said Majors Head Coach and General Manager Dave Cameron. “He is a valuable part of our organization and this award is a testament to his hard work.”

The OHL Goaltender of the Year is awarded to the league's most outstanding goaltender as selected by OHL General Managers. Teams were not permitted to vote for a goaltender from their own hockey club. Goaltenders received five points for a first place vote, three points for a second place vote and one point for a third place vote.

Carrozzi received 59 points in the voting process ahead of runner-up Matt Hackett of the Plymouth Whalers who received 48 points. Patrick Killeen of the Brampton Battalion finished third in voting with 27 points.

(Nathan also is a writer for Maineiacs Post to Post and the Maine Hockey Journal. He can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)

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