Budish earns weekly WCHA award again

A slightly modified WCHA news release:

Rookie of the Week: Zach Budish, fr., F, Minnesota

The 6-3, 220-pound freshman from Edina, Minn., and a draftee of the NHL's Nashville Predators, Budish had five points in the Gophers' split at Alaska Anchorage, including the first four-point game by any Gopher player this season.

Budish had the game-winner in last Friday's 7-4 Minnesota win. He and Jacob Cepis also had the first three-assist games by a Minnesota player this season. Budish then scored the team's lone goal in Saturday's 2-1 loss to the Seawolves.

Budish had a +1 rating for the series and fired five shots on goal.

Through 28 games, Budish has seven goals and eight assists for 15 points, which ties him for fifth among freshman in WCHA. He also is tied with freshman defenseman Nick Leddy for the Minnesota team lead with a +7 rating.

Also nominated for this award were freshmen forwards Andrew Hamburg of Colorado College and Drew Shore of Denver.

Two players for Denver -- the team the Gophers play next in 1-1/2 weeks -- received the other WCHA awards:

A 6-5, 195-pound sophomore from Calgary, Alberta, Colborne is in the midst of a career-best, eight-game point-scoring streak during which he has produced 12 points on five goals and seven assists.

In the Pioneers' 2-0 shutout victory over North Dakota on Friday, Colborne netted the game-winner at 1:23 of the first period. He then came back in the series finale last Saturday to again score the game-winning goal – this time at 17:52 of the second period – and add one assist as Denver rallied from a 2-0 deficit to claim a 4-2 triumph over UND. His assist came on a goal that tied the game at 2-2. It was his seventh multiple-point game of the season.

Colborne finished the weekend with a team-best +3 rating, added eight hits, and had two blocked shots.

The Boston Bruins (NHL) draftee has 26 points (11g, 15a) in 24 games played, an average of 1.08 points per game.

Also nominated for this award were Gophers sophomore center Jordan Schroeder -- he had a power-play goal and a short-handed goal last Friday -- forward Kevin Clark of Alaska Anchorage; CC forward Bill Sweatt, and forward Garrett Roe of St. Cloud State.

Defensive Player of the Week: Marc Cheverie, jr., G, Denver

For the third time this season, goalie Marc Cheverie of Denver has been named the WCHA Defensive Player of the Week, this time for Feb. 2, 2010. He also earned the weekly honor after back-to-back 3-0 shutouts of Minnesota on Oct. 23 and 24 at Mariucci and after a series against North Dakota in late November.

On Friday, Cheverie stopped 33 shot for his NCAA Div. 1-leading sixth shutout of the season.

Last Saturday, Cheverie had 22 saves as Denver went 4-0-0 in the regular-season series vs the Fighting Sioux for the first time since 1992-93.

Cheverie (14-3-3, 2.01 GAA, .932 Sv%) leads the WCHA in goals-against average, saves percentage and shutouts, and is second in winning percentage (.775).