Union College Senior Kelly Zajac Finalist for ECAC Honors

Senior forward Kelly Zajac was named one of three finalists for the 2011-12 ECAC Hockey Best Defensive Forward Award, the league announced on Thursday.

Joining Zajac are Greg Miller of Cornell and Chris Wagner of Colgate, who were also named finalists. The winner will be announced at the league's awards banquet on March 15 in Atlantic City, NJ. The finalists and the winner were selected by voting by the 12 ECAC Hockey head coaches.

Zajac, a top faceoff man and a leader on Union’s penalty killing unit, was also a finalist for the award in 2011. He leads the team in faceoffs won at 479-366 (.567) on the season and has taken 38% of the team's faceoffs this season. Zajac has helped the Dutchmen move into the top-15 in penalty killing at 84.1% on the season, the best PK mark that Union has achieved in in Zajac's four seasons at Union.

The Winnipeg, Manitoba native not only has amassed 125 points on offense (37g-88a) in his career. The first-line forward led the Dutchmen in scoring in conference games year for the second consecutive year with 25 points on five goals and 20 assists, and leads the team in scoring with 39 points (eight goals, 31 assists) in 34 games. Zajac helped the Dutchmen earn top honors with both the league’s best scoring offense, (3.45 goals per game) and defense surrendering only 1.73 goals per contest.

The preceding information was provided by Jeffrey Weinstein, Assistant Sports Information Director for Union College Athletics.