Engineers freshman forward one of three nominees for this year's honor

TROY, NY – ECAC Hockey has announced its finalists for the 2009-10 Men's Rookie of the Year Award and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) student-athleteis one of three nominees in the running for the honor. The winner of this year's award will be announced by the league next week.Other finalists for the Rookie of the Year Award include Union College's Keith Kinkaid and Harvard University's Louis LeBlanc.D'Amigo, a forward from Binghamton, N.Y., played in 35 games, tallying 10 goals and 24 assists for 34 points. He was third on the team in points, second in assists and fourth in goals. Three of his goals came on the power play, while one was shorthanded and a team-high three were game-winners.In 21 league games, D'Amigo scored seven goals with 17 assists for 24 points. He was second in freshman scoring (1.14 points per game), third in overall shorthanded points (1 goal, 1 assist) and sixth in overall assists per game (0.81). Nationally he ranks fourth in rookie points and fifth in points per game by a rookie (0.97).A sixth-round (158th overall) draftee by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 2009 National Hockey League (NHL) Entry Draft, D'Amigo was named to the ECAC Hockey All-Rookie Team and was a two-time Weekly Honor Roll selection this season.D'Amigo missed four games while playing for the United States World Junior Championship Team. He led that team to a gold medal by scoring 12 points (6 goals, 6 assists) to rank second in the tournament and on the team. He was first on the U.S. squad in goals and third in assists with a plus-7. D'Amigo was the team's Player of the Game twice and had multiple-point efforts in each of the three games in the medal round.Prior to arriving at Rensselaer, D'Amigo was a standout on the U.S. Under-18 National Development Team, where he posted 23 goals and 33 assists for 56 points in 53 games. He helped lead that squad to a gold medal at the U.S. World Championships and was named to the All-Tournament Team after leading the team in scoring with 13 points (4 goals, 9 assists). D'Amigo also played for the U.S. National Under-17 Team in 2007-08, where he served as an assistant captain and was the only player on the squad to play in all 64 games.Rensselaer concluded its season with an 18-17-4 record, including a 10-9-3 mark in ECAC Hockey. The Engineers advanced to the conference playoffs before being eliminated by Brown.