2018-19 MIAC WOMEN'S HOCKEY AWARDS

MINNEAPOLIS -- For the fourth time in program history, an Augsburg University player earned the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference's top senior women's hockey student-athlete honor, as forward Megan Johnson (SR, Madison, Wis./Memorial HS) was named the recipient of the MIAC Sheila Brown Award, leading a group of six Auggies to earn postseason women's hockey honors from the conference on Monday.

In addition to her senior honor, Johnson joined forward Bridget Wagner (JR, Niles, Ill./Maine South HS) and defender Nikki Nightengale (JR, Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson HS) All-MIAC honorees, while defenders Valerie Whichello (SR, Woodbury, Minn./East Ridge HS) and Mackenzie Molnar (JR, Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall HS) received All-MIAC Honorable Mention honors. Goalie McKenna Manalli (SR, Byron, Ill./Byron HS) was named to the All-MIAC Sportsmanship Team.

Wagner and Nightengale repeated their All-MIAC honors from last season, while Johnson was an All-MIAC Honorable Mention honoree in 2015-16 and All-MIAC Sportsmanship Team honoree in 2016-17. An All-MIAC selection in 2016-17, Whichello earned All-MIAC Honorable Mention honors in both 2017-18 and 2015-16, and All-MIAC Rookie Team honors in 2015-16. It's the first MIAC honors for Molnar and Manalli.

The six players are part of an Augsburg squad that earned the program's fourth straight berth in the MIAC postseason playoffs, finishing the season 14-7-5 overall, 11-3-4 in MIAC play, under ninth-year head coach Michelle McAteer.

Johnson earned the MIAC's Shelia Brown Award on a vote of conference coaches. The award is named for Brown, the longtime athletic director at St. Catherine University who died from cancer in 2005. The award is given to a senior women's hockey player who has made a long-term contribution to her team's success and who has consistently competed with good sportsmanship. Recipients are chosen based on four criteria -- team leadership, sportsmanship and volunteer work, academic excellence and hockey skills/production.

On the ice, Johnson finished her senior season with five goals and 10 assists for 15 points in 24 games, with a power-play goal and a game-winning goal. She had a goal or assist in 11 of her 24 games, including a stretch of six in seven games late in the season. In her 103-game career, she scored 31 goals with 28 assists for 59 points, standing 10th in school history in goals, tied for 14th in assists and tied for 12th in points. 

Off the ice, Johnson is a mathematics major at Augsburg with a 3.8952 grade-point average. In 2016-17, she earned the MIAC's Elite 22 Award as the student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA at a the conference women's hockey playoff championship event. She is a two-time Academic All-MIAC honoree and was an American Hockey Coaches Association All-American Scholar last season. A two-year team co-captain, she has served as a tutor/instructor in calculus and physics during her Augsburg years, and has been a volunteer with Special Olympics Minnesota, Feed My Starving Children and Athletes in Action.

Johnson is the fourth Auggie to earn the Sheila Brown Award since it was established by the conference in the 2005-06 season. Tiffany Magnuson earned the honor in 2009, Jess Olson earned the honor in 2010 and Kayla Fuechtmann earned the honor in 2016.

For the second year in a row, Wagner led the Auggies in points, compiling 23 (11 goals, 12 assists), including two power-play goals and two game-winning goals. Among MIAC players in overall statistics, she stands ninth in points, tied for eighth in goals and 12th in assists. She had a goal or assist in 14 of her 26 games this season, including five multiple-point games and two multiple-goal games. In her 79-game college career, Wagner now has 28 goals and 33 assists for 61 points, ranking 11th in school history in goals and points, and 10th in assists.

Nightengale became the best scoring defender in the MIAC this season, compiling 13 goals and eight assists for 21 points -- the goal total tops among MIAC defenders and the point total tied for first. Her goal total was fifth-most overall among MIAC players, with her point total tied for 10th-most overall. Nightengale tied for the team lead in special-teams goals with five power-play markers and one shorthanded goal, with the power-play goals tied for third-most among MIAC players, and her nine power-play points (five goals, four assists) tied for sixth-most. She had a goal or assist in 15 of her 26 games this season, with six multi-point games. In her 79-game career, she now has 18 goals and 21 assists for 39 points.

Whichello continued her outstanding career on defense, as part of an Auggie blue line that allowed just 52 goals this season -- fourth-fewest among MIAC teams. She was also a key member of a penalty-kill unit that led the MIAC with a .921 penalty-kill percentage (70-of-76), third-best among NCAA Division III teams nationally. Whichello scored five goals and nine assists for 14 points, including two power-play goals, with her point total tied for sixth-most among conference defenders. Whichello finished her 104-game college career with 11 goals and 41 assists for 52 points, with her assist total fifth-most in school history and her point total 16th-best.

Molnar had a breakout season in 2018-19, scoring six goals and eight assists for 14 points while being an integral part of the Auggie defensive corps. Her six goals and 14 points were both tied for sixth-most among MIAC defenders, and she had a goal or assist in 10 of her 24 games. She claimed her first collegiate hat trick with a three-goal, one-assist effort in Augsburg's 6-0 home win over Bethel on Nov. 10, earning her MIAC Athlete of the Week honors. In her 77-game college career, Molnar now has 15 goals and 18 assists for 33 points.

Manalli was named to the All-MIAC Sportsmanship Team, as part of the conference's sportsmanship initiative. Members of the All-MIAC Sportsmanship Team are selected by their coaches and teammates as individuals who demonstrate ideals of positive sportsmanship both on and off the field of competition. Manalli started eight games in goal this season, claiming a 6-2-0 record with three shutouts, a 1.39 goals-against-average and a .917 save percentage, with 122 saves in 474 minutes of action. Appearing in 23 games (19 starts) in her Auggie career, Manalli finished with a 15-3-1 record with five shutouts, a 1.31 goals-against-average, .921 save percentage and 291 saves in 1,148 minutes played. Her five career shutouts are tied for sixth-most in school history, and her .921 save percentage is fourth-best.