Carle, Collins, Elliott are Hobey Baker finalists

Denver junior defenseman Matt Carle, Boston College senior left wing Chris Collins and University of Wisconsin junior goalie Brian Elliott are the three finalists for the Hobey Baker Award given to the nation’s top Division I college hockey player.

They were selected from an initial group of 10 finalists including University of Maine senior right wing and captain Greg Moore of Lisbon.

Moore has 28 goals and 16 assists to lead the Black Bears in scoring and to a berth in the NCAA Frozen Four. He had 12 power-play goals and five game-winners.

He now has 66 goals and 40 assists for 106 points in his 153-game career.

Carle was the first player in history chosen as both the WCHA Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. He had 11 goals and a nation-leading 42 assists for 53 points in 39 games.

Collins was the Hockey East Player of the Year and has 31 goals and 30 assists in 40 games. He is second in the country in goals, points, points per game (1.52) and shorthanded goals (5).

Elliott leads the nation’s goalies in virtually all major categories including wins (25), goals-against average (1.55), save percentage (.938), shutouts (8) and winning percentage (.803, 25-5-3 record). He has a string of three consecutive shutouts entering the Badgers’ Frozen Four semifinal against Maine.

Moore said he didn’t expect to be in the final three.

“I’m just happy to make the top 10. I know, realistically, there were some great players within the top 10,” said Moore.

Prior to Wednesday’s announcement, he had predicted Carle, Elliott and Minnesota center Ryan Potulny would be the three finalists.

Moore was Maine’s first Hobey Baker Award finalist since Steve Kariya in 1999 and its second since 1995.

Defenseman Chris Imes was the runner-up in 1995.

Maine had back-to-back Hobey Baker Award winners in 1992 (Scott Pellerin ) and 1993 (Paul Kariya).

Moore was Maine’s ninth Hobey Baker Award finalist with David Capuano and Jean-Yves Roy being two-time finalists.