ITHACA, N.Y. — Junior Mitch Vanderlaan has been named one of three finalists for the ECAC Hockey Best Defensive Forward Award, the league announced Wednesday.
 
Vanderlaan continues to be one of the Big Red's best two-way players, not only ranking among scoring leaders while also seeing the ice in pressure situations like penalty kills and opponents' extra-attacker opportunities late in one- or two-goal games. He ranked 11th in the nation among forward with 1.14 shot blocks per game before his regular season was ended prematurely on Feb. 3 due to injury — sustained while blocking a shot. He has a plus-9 rating for the year to boost his career total to a plus-33, which ranks second on the team behind only Alec McCrea.
 
Cornell has a strong history with the award, with Jay R. Bloom '77 Head Coach of Men's Hockey Mike Schafer having guided six players to win the award seven times over the last 17 years — Doug Steinstra (2000), Stephen Bâby (2002, 2003), Tyler Mugford (2009), Greg Miller (2013), Cole Bardreau (2015) and Jake Weidner (2017). The only other team with more than two over that stretch is St. Lawrence.
 
Other finalists for the ECAC Hockey Best Defensive Forward are Clarkson's Nico Sturm and Union's Cole Maier. The winner is scheduled to be announced Saturday, amidst the Big Red's ECAC Hockey Championship quarterfinal series against Quinnipiac at Lynah Rink.