Mike Reilly wins another Big Ten hockey Defensive Player of the Year award

Gophers defenseman Mike Reilly will reign as the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year for another season. The junior from Chanhassen, Minn., won the award for a second straight year on Monday after helping guide the Gophers to back-to-back Big Ten regular-season championships.

Senior forwards Kyle Rau and Travis Boyd, and junior goaltender Adam Wilcox earned All-Big Ten Second Team honors. Junior defenseman Brady Skjei was an Honorable Mention.

Reilly leads all college hockey defenseman with a career-high 42 points and 36 assists, and is the first Gophers defenseman to lead the team in scoring since 1996-1997. He leads the Big Ten with 21 power-play points and has a plus-23 rating. His 36 assists are tied for second-most among all NCAA skaters.

The First Team All-American was a unanimous All-Big Ten First Team selection.

"It's a real honor to be recognized by the Big Ten coaches and voters, but the important thing for us is to keep our focus on taking care of business this weekend in Detroit," Reilly said.

Rau led the Gophers to a fourth straight conference title with five points in the final weekend of the regular season and has 39 total points (19 goals, 20 assists). He was also recognized as a Sportsmanship Award honoree. Boyd set career highs with 26 points and 16 goals in just 29 games this season (he missed a month of the season with an injury), and leads the nation with a .271 shooting percentage. Wilcox recorded at 20-11-3 record with a .909 save percentage and 2.46 goals-against average to earn his third straight all-conference honor. Last season, he was the Big Ten Player of the Year and Goaltender of the Year.

Skjei tallied 10 points (one goal, nine assists) in 30 games and helped lead the Gophers' much-improved defensive effort in the final six weeks of the season.

He allowed just 39 goals in conference play with a .940 save percentage and five shutouts. Hildebrand was also the Big Ten's Goaltender of the Year with a 1.94 goals-against average and 11 league victories.

Michigan's Dylan Larkin is the Freshman of the Year and his teammate Zach Hyman is the Big Ten's Scoring Champion with 33 points (12 goals 21 assists) in conference play. Penn State coach Guy Gadowsky earned Coach of the Year honors after leading the Nittany Lions to 10 conference victories and a chance to win the regular-season title in the final weekend.

2014-15 All-Big Ten Hockey Team
As selected by Big Ten coaches and Media Voting Panel

Player of the Year:
Jake Hildebrand, G, Michigan State
Defensive Player of the Year (defenseman or forward):
Mike Reilly, D, Minnesota
Goaltender of the Year:
JAKE HILDEBRAND, G, MICHIGAN STATE
Freshman of the Year:
DYLAN LARKIN, F, MICHIGAN
Coach of the Year:
Guy Gadowsky, Penn State
Scoring champion:
Zach Hyman, F, Michigan
First Team
ZACH HYMAN, F, MICHIGAN; Dylan Larkin, F, Michigan; Casey Bailey, F, Penn State; Zach Werenski, D, Michigan; MIKE REILLY, D, MINNESOTA; JAKE HILDEBRAND, G, MICHIGAN STATE
Second Team
Andrew Copp, F, Michigan; Travis Boyd, F, Minnesota; Kyle Rau, F, Minnesota; Michael Downing, D, Michigan; Travis Walsh, D, Michigan State; Adam Wilcox, G, Minnesota
Honorable Mention
Matt Berry, F, Michigan State; Anthony Greco, F, Ohio State; David Goodwin, F, Penn State; Taylor Holstrom, F, Penn State; Brady Skjei, D, Minnesota; Nate Jensen, D, Penn State; Luke Juha, D, Penn State; Patrick Koudys, D, Penn State; PJ Musico, G, Penn State
All-Freshman Team
DYLAN LARKIN, F, MICHIGAN; Matthew Weis, F, Ohio State; Scott Conway, F, Penn State; ZACH WERENSKI, D, MICHIGAN; Josh Jacobs, D, Michigan State

UNANIMOUS SELECTION IN ALL CAPS

• A pair of wins and a Big Ten regular-season championship jumped the Gophers two spots to No. 13 in Monday's USCHO poll. The successful weekend, however, wasn't enough to improve the Gophers' uncertain status for the NCAA tournament.

The Gophers are also 13th in the PairWise rankings, USCHO's poll based off the formula that the NCAA committee uses to select its 16-team tournament field, and on the bubble entering the Big Ten hockey tournament in Detroit.

The No. 1-seeded Gophers have a first-round bye and play the winner of Penn State and Ohio State in Friday's 3:30 p.m. semifinal. They likely need to win at least one game in Detroit to be considered for an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament. The winner of the Big Ten tournament earns an automatic bid.

North Dakota, Minnesota State, Boston University, Michigan Tech and Denver fill out the top five spots in the USCHO poll.

Complete USCHO men's poll, the top 20 results, the PairWise rankings, and final Big Ten regular-season results and standings. Play out your own tournament scenario's with USCHO's PairWise predictor and fill out your Big Ten tournament bracket.