Tuesday May 5, 2015

Toronto, ON – The Ontario Hockey League today announced that Lucas Peressini of the Kingston Frontenacs is the 2014-15 recipient of the OHL’s Goaltender of the Year award.

Peressini played in 59 games for the Frontenacs with a league-high 3413 minutes between the pipes posting a 30-20-3-3 record and tying for third in the OHL with a franchise record five shutouts. He made 1564 saves which ranked fifth overall in the league while posting the OHL’s second best goals-against-average and save percentage with marks of 2.32 and .922 respectively which are also both franchise records.

“It is an honour to be receiving this award considering all of the deserving candidates,” Peressini said. “I couldn’t have done it without the great group of players in front of me, a dedicated coaching staff and the first class Frontenac organization”

Peressini becomes the third Frontenacs goaltender to win the award following Andrew Raycroft in 2000, and Tyler Moss in 1995. His five shutouts surpass Peter Hamerlik’s four in 2000-01, while his 2.32 goals-against-average surpasses Dayne Davis’ 2.77 in 2003-04 while his .922 save percentage bests Raycroft’s .918 from 1999-00. Alongside backup Jeremy Helvig, the Frontenacs allowed just 197 goals-against in 2014-15 which is their lowest total in franchise history beating the previous low of 218 set in 2000-01.

“We are all extremely proud of Lucas,” said Frontenacs General Manager Doug Gilmour. “His hard work, perseverance and great attitude have put him in this situation. He’s a great leader on our team and we couldn’t be happier for him.”

A 20-year-old from Nobleton, ON, Peressini completed his second full OHL season with the Frontenacs after being acquired from the Saginaw Spirit where he was chosen in the 12th round of the 2011 OHL Priority Selection. He earned Vaughn CHL Goaltender of the Week honours in November and OHL Goaltender of the Month accolades in March with a perfect 7-0-0-0 record to close out the regular season. The 6’2’’ 188lb netminder made at least 30 saves in 22 of his games this season including five games with 40 or more stops earning victories in all five of those contests. Peressini received three-star recognition 17 different times this season with eight first star performances which was second among all OHL goaltenders. He was also recognized in the OHL’s Eastern Conference Coaches Poll as the third Best Puck-Handling Goalie, the second Most Improved Player, and the Best Shootout Goalie after tying for a league-high five wins by shootout allowing just six goals on 30 attempts.

The OHL Goaltender of the Year is awarded to the league’s most outstanding goaltender as selected by OHL General Managers. Teams were not permitted to vote for a goaltender from their own hockey club. Goaltenders received five points for a first place vote, three points for a second place vote and one point for a third place vote.

Peressini received 46 points in the voting process ahead of runner-up Ken Appleby of the Oshawa Generals who finished with 40 voting points, followed by Carolina Hurricanes prospect and last year’s award recipient Alex Nedeljkovic of the Plymouth Whalers who received 29 voting points.

The award was first presented in 1987-88 to Rick Tabaracci (Cornwall) with other notable winners including Manny Legace (Niagara Falls 1993), Ray Emery (Sault Ste. Marie 2002), Steve Mason (London 2007), the league’s only back-to-back winner Mike Murphy (Belleville 2008-09), Mark Visentin (Niagara 2011), Michael Houser (London 2012), and Jordan Binnington (Owen Sound 2013).

Peressini will be formally presented with the OHL’s Goaltender of the Year Award on Tuesday June 9 at the OHL Awards Ceremony held at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. He is also the OHL’s nominee for CHL Goaltender of the Year to be announced on Saturday May 30 at the 2015 MasterCard Memorial Cup in Quebec City.