DENVER – University of Denver hockey senior Samu Salminen has been named the NCHC Forward of the Week, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference announced on Tuesday.
 
This is Salminen's first career weekly honor and marks the first time this season that a Denver player has been named Forward of the Week.
 
Salminen recorded his fourth and fifth multi-goal games of his career last week against Arizona State and finished the series sweep with four goals. one assist, seven shots, a plus-5 rating, two blocks and 12 total faceoff wins. He began the set versus ASU with his third, three-point game of the campaign with a two goals and an assist in a 5-2 victory on Friday before tallying twice on Saturday in DU's 4-1 win to close the regular season.
 
The Helsinki, Finland, native has recorded three or more points in two of his last four games and is on a four-game point streak (4g/5a), matching his season long. Salminen previously tallied twice in a game on Nov. 29 against Minnesota in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game at Ball Arena, and he finished the four-game seasons series against the Sun Devils with 10 points (5g/5a), which included a four-point performance (1g/3a) on Nov. 21 in Tempe—his first game with three or more points this year.
 
Salminen has played in all 35 games this season and has produced nine goals and 17 assists for 26 points—all close to matching his career bests. The center also leads the team with 308 faceoff wins and with a .528 winning percentage in draws.
 
This is the final weekly awards of the season, with Denver totaling 13 accolades overall during the campaign. Miami's Shaun McEwen was named the conference's defenseman of the week while Colorado College's Kaidan Mbereko was chosen as Goaltender of the Week and North Dakota's Cole Reschny was picked as Rookie of the Week. DU's Johnny Hicks (goaltender and rookie) and Eric Pohlkamp (defenseman) were also finalists for this week's honors.
 
UP NEXT: The Pioneers begin the postseason this weekend as they host the Miami RedHawks at Magness Arena for a best-of-three series in the NCHC Quarterfinals. The series begins on Friday at 7 p.m. MT and Game 2 is on Saturday is at 6 p.m. MT. If necessary, Game 3 will be Sunday at 6 p.m. MT, and every game of the NCHC Frozen Faceoff Tournament will be broadcast on NCHC.tv.

TICKETS: Tickets DU hockey quarterfinal series on March 6-8 are on sale now. Click here for more information.