University of North Dakota sophomore forward Ryan Duncan says he was surprised to win the Hobey Baker Memorial Award. His father had a stronger reaction.
“I was in shock,” Bob Duncan said after his son was honored as the nation’s best college hockey player on Friday.
Bob Duncan dreamed of his son playing hockey for UND, just like he did in the late 1960s and early 1970s. But he never dreamed his son would win college hockey’s top award.
The firefighter from Calgary, Alberta, came to St. Louis without his wife, Debbie, who was on a trip out of the country. After feeling the pain of UND’s loss against Boston College in the Frozen Four semifinals Thursday, Bob Duncan was at the other end of the emotional roller-coaster a day later when it was announced that his son had beaten out Notre Dame goalie David Brown and Air Force forward Eric Ehn for the Hobey Baker award.
“We’ve heard all his life how small he is, that he’s too small to play,” Bob Duncan said of his 5-foot-6 son. “Every year he’s played since minor hockey, he’s had to prove himself. I guess that’s what I’m most pleased with.”
Ryan Duncan was big enough to lift the 40-pound bronze Hobey Baker trophy after he became the first Fighting Sioux player since Tony Hrkac in 1987 to win the award.
“It’s a winner for the little guys, but it’s also a winner for North Dakota hockey,” Bob Duncan said.
Ryan Duncan was the 13th Sioux player to be up for the Hobey Baker award and the 18th finalist overall. The list of 18 includes such multiple finalists as Greg Johnson (three times), and Jason Blake, Jeff Panzer and Zach Parise (twice each).
“I feel we’ve had deserving candidates in the past,” UND coach Dave Hakstol said. “I look back to Zach Parise (2003, 2004) most recently, and I think of Jeff Panzer as a senior (2001).”
UND is tied with Michigan State for most Hobey Baker finalists but has captured the award just twice, despite winning seven national titles in school history.
“It speaks to the special year Ryan has had,” Hakstol said. “It’s been 20 years since Tony won the award, and there’s been an awful lot of not only great players but quality people coming through the program at North Dakota.”
Duncan said more than once that he didn’t consider himself the best player on his own line, much less his team. His line included NHL first-round draft picks T.J. Oshie and Jonathan Toews.
“I have yet to hear him take credit for his season,” Hakstol said. “That’s the best quality, especially when it comes from the heart, and that’s where it comes from with Ryan.”
Bob Duncan said his son’s award was “a reflection of his teammates.”
“Oshie and Toews are great players,” he said. “I think Ryan is a great player, too. It just happens that they mesh together.”
Ehn said he was not surprised that Duncan won the award.
“Watching video clips of him (at the ceremony), I kept leaning over to Dave (Brown) and saying ‘Wow’ … then the next one, ‘Wow that was nice’ … then the next one, ‘Wow I wish I could do that.'” Ehn said. “He’s a tremendously talented player, and he deserves everything he got.”
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Information from: Grand Forks Herald,
