Frankel wins inaugural women’s National Goalie of the Year Award unanimously

In a completely expected and not at all surprising announcement from the Women’s Hockey Commissioners Association (WHCA) awarded the inaugural National Goalie of the Year award unanimously to Northeastern’s Aerin Frankel. The other two finalists were Josie Bothun from Penn State, and Loryn Porter from Maine, who was the All-Hockey East second team goalie.

The announcement was very much just a formality after the season Frankel put together. Just going into the stats she set two single season records for goalies. Her .971 save percentage and 0.698 goals allowed average (GAA) bested the mark set by Ann-Renée Desbiens in her Patty Kaz winning season. Frankel has nine shutouts and recorded her 19th win of the season in Northeastern’s 5-1 win over Robert Morris to advance the Huskies onto the Frozen Four for the first time in program history.

This season saw Frankel rewrite both the Northeastern and Hockey East record books. Her Northeastern records include games played, minutes played, GAA, save percentage, shutouts, and wins. In Hockey East she set the single season save percentage mark this year and broke the all-time league shutout record, her GAA was only the second best all-time.

This award is another in a massive haul of trophies she has earned this season. She won the Hockey East Player of the Week four times and Defensive Player of the Week twice. Her monthly awards include two each of Hockey East and WHCA National Goaltender recognitions. Frankel was the first team All-Hockey East goalie, the Hockey East All-Tournament goalie and the Hockey East Championship MVP. She is currently a top-10 finalist for the Patty Kaz Award and is a favorite to finish at least in the top-2 if not to outright win the award.