EHN POSSESSES NUMBERS, BUT IS IT ENOUGH?
Air Force's junior center tied for nation's lead with 46 points, 19 goals

By Mike Chambers

Statistics and geography play a big part in determining the winner of the Hobey Baker Award, given to college hockey's player of the year.

Air Force's Eric Ehn, who is tied with Michigan's T.J. Hensick with an NCAA-leading 46 points, has the necessary stats, and considering three of the four previous winners represented Front Range teams, Ehn has geography on his side, too.

The question is, can Air Force and Ehn convince voters the points he produces against mostly lower-level opponents is comparable to what former winners Peter Sejna (2003) and Marty Sertich (2005) of Colorado College and Matt Carle (2006) of the University of Denver did for their tradition-rich and schedule-tough programs?

Don't ask Ehn, a soft-spoken Michigan native who Thursday was just interested in preparing for this weekend's Atlantic Hockey Association series with visiting Mercyhurst.

"I thought I was pretty fortunate to just get into a college hockey program," Ehn said. "To have this whole thing happening is pretty surreal. If I do win it, it will be a team award."

The junior center from Dexter, Mich., has led the country in scoring for 10 of the past 11 weeks. He is tied with Hensick, a second-round NHL draft pick of the Avalanche, with 1.64 points per game. Ehn has 19 goals and Hensick 12.

This week's CSTV watch list and Hobey fan poll on www.hobeybaker.com provided some insight into the 27th Hobey race. On the watch list, Hensick is first and Ehn seventh. In the poll, Ehn has received 11 percent of the votes, second behind RIT's Jocelyn Guimond (15 percent). Hensick has just 1 percent.

Ehn, the best player in the AHA, will likely become Air Force's first Hobey Baker top 10 finalist. The second cut trims the candidates to three. Ehn's 31 points in AHA games already is a school record for scoring in conference play, and in five games against the "Big Four" conferences, Ehn has five points (four goals) and a plus-3 rating.

"I believe he is a legitimate top-10 finalist, and it'll be up to the committee to decide if he's worthy of more," Air Force coach Frank Serratore said. "It's just really good to have a player of that caliber and stature. It shows to other kids that if you come to the academy and do well, you have a chance to be noticed, just like everybody else."