ITHACA, N.Y. — Senior Matt Nuttle has been named a finalist for ECAC Hockey Best Defensive Defenseman honors, the league announced Tuesday afternoon.
 
Alongside classmates Alec McCrea and Brendan Smith as senior pillars on one of the nation's most vaunted defensive units, Nuttle once again ranks among the league's leaders in rating. He's a plus-17 overall and a plus-12 in just the 22 ECAC Hockey games, with the latter ranking second-best among blueliners in the league. Not measured in that statistic is his role as one of the frontline penalty-killers on a unit that ranks first in the country with a 92.2 percent success rate since Dec. 1.
 
In all, Nuttle is now a staggering plus-40 over the last two seasons after having a muted role with the Big Red as an underclassman. He played in just two games as a freshman before progressing enough to earn a full-time role on a third defensive pairing with Holden Anderson '16 the following year. He continued to take on a bigger role last season, playing primarily with then-freshman Cody Haiskanen on a blue line that led the nation in goals against average.  
 
Other finalists for the ECAC Hockey Best Defensive Defenseman are Clarkson's Greg Moro and Quinnipiac's Chase Priskie. The winner is scheduled to be announced Tuesday, March 19. After McCrea won the honor last year, Nuttle is attempting to give Cornell back-to-back winners of the award for the first time since Brian McMeekin (2002) and Doug Murray (2003) garnered the honor.
 
Entering the weekend ranked 10th in the nation in both major polls, Cornell starts its postseason run at 7 p.m. Friday in Game 1 of an ECAC Hockey Championship quarterfinal series against Union at Lynah Rink.