ST. PAUL — At the WCHA award banquet at this weekend’s Final Five tournament, UW defenseman Jamie McBain was named the WCHA Player of the Year.?

McBain, a junior from Faribault, Minn., leads Wisconsin in scoring, with seven goals and 29 assists on the season. He also led all WCHA blueliners in scoring on the season.?

While McBain’s numbers on the year have certainly been impressive, he admitted the award caught him a bit off-guard.?

“No one is more surprised than me, I’ll tell you that,” McBain said after the banquet. “You look around the league at all the great players, the one that came to my mind is (Minnesota forward) Ryan Stoa for the year he had, especially coming back off that injury. I was surprised, but obviously it’s a huge honor.”?

That wasn’t the only honor McBain received Thursday night. The Top Ten finalists for the Hobey Baker Award were announced, and McBain’s named was on the list. He was the only representative from the WCHA to be nominated as a finalist.?

“Again, I was surprised,” he said. “I had a little skid there and kind of didn’t get any points so I thought I might be out of it. It’s a huge honor just knowing that people are appreciative of my game.”?

With Wisconsin’s Final Five game against Denver looming large–the two face off tomorrow afternoon at the Xcel Energy Center at 2 p.m. CT–McBain doesn’t have much time to worry about the individual awards.?

“I’m going to, as much as I can, just focus on the games,” McBain said.