Cahow Earns USA Hockey Player-of-Year Honor

Photo by DSPics.com

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Senior defenseman Caitlin Cahow has been selected the Bob Allen Women's Player of the Year, USA Hockey announced Thursday. Cahow will be presented with the trophy at the 2008 Annual Congress Award Ceremony June 7 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Colorado Springs.

The event, which includes service and player of the year awards for players around the country, will be staged in the Crowne Plaza's Grand Ballroom at an awards ceremony entitled the "President's Awards Dinner."

Cahow, a team captain of the 2007-08 Crimson, led Harvard to a 32-2-0 finish and a berth in the NCAA Frozen Four in Duluth, Minn. En route to the national semifinals, Harvard obtained a No. 1 ranking for eight consecutive weeks and captured the Beanpot, Ivy League, ECAC regular-season and ECAC tournament titles. A social and biological anthropology concentrator, Cahow scored 37 points (15-22-37), which ranked her second among the nation's defensemen. She also ranked second in the country with 12 power play goals and led the nation's best scoring defense.

For her efforts, Cahow was named to the RBK Hockey/AHCA All-America First Team, was selected to the All-ECAC First Team, was chosen was a unanimous All-Ivy pick and was the ECAC Tournament Most Outstanding Player after scoring the game-winner in overtime against St. Lawrence. The native of Vinalhaven, Maine, was chosen to the New England Hockey Writers Division I Women's All-Star Team and succeeded outside of the classroom, garnering Academic All-America, Academic All-Ivy League and ECAC All-Academic Team accolades as a senior. She was named to three ECAC All-Academic squads during her career.

The top-10 finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Trophy was a bronze-medalist with Team USA at the 2006 Torino Olympic Games. Most recently, Cahow was named one of the U.S. Women's National Team's three best players at the 2008 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Women's Championship this past April in Harbin, China. She scored two power-play goals and collected three assists to help Team USA capture its second-ever gold medal at the tournament.

Cahow played in 134 games in her Harvard career and is tied for 14th on the school's all-time scoring list with 113 points (31-82-113).

Harvard head coach Katey Stone will introduce Cahow at the awards dinner. Stone, the winningest women's hockey coach in Harvard history and the 2008 ECAC Coach of the Year, will serve as the head coach of the U.S. Women's Select Team at the Four Nations Cup Nov. 4-9, in Lake Placid, N.Y.