Quinnipiac's Dan Federico up for best defensive defenseman

Here's the ECAC press release....

Finalists Named for League’s Best Defensive Defenseman Award

ALBANY, N.Y. -- ECAC Hockey today announced the finalists for the 2013-14 Men’s Best Defensive Defenseman Award. Dan Federico, Quinnipiac, Union’s Shayne Gostisbehere and Dennis Robertson, Brown have each been nominated for the honor by the league’s coaches.

Federico tied for the ECAC Hockey lead with a plus/minus rating of +19 in overall contests. He is one of 13 players in ECAC Hockey with 50 or more blocked shots for the year. He often generated points from his defensive play where he ranked 16th among all ECAC Hockey defensemen with 14 points, on the strength of one goal and a career-best 13 assists. Federico scored his first career goal in a 7-2 win at Colgate on 11/1 and registered an assist on the game-winning goals in both a 4-3 win against Bentley on 10/22 and versus Maine on 1/3.

Another finalist for the league’s top defenseman award is Shayne Gostisbehere from Union. The junior is a solid two-way player who led the conference in goals scored, shots and tied for the lead league with a plus/minus rating of +19 among his counterparts. Often matched-up against the opponent’s top line, the Philadelphia Flyers third-round draft pick from 2012, has set a school record for shots in a season by a defenseman (130) at and owns six multiple-point games this season.

Robertson, a two-time team captain, put together another impressive all-around season for the Bears. He started 22 games on left defense and logged substantial minutes as one-half of the team’s top defensive pairing, providing a stabilizing presence to a blue line that was plagued by injuries throughout the season in conference play. He finished with 17 points on six goals and 11 assists, scoring all six goals in ECAC Hockey contests. He led the team with 55 blocked shots and finished with a +10 rating. Robertson was part large part of Brown special teams, playing on both the penalty kill and power-play units, and finished tied for the team-high with five power-play goals and a conference-high two game-winning goals.