Canada鈥檚 鈥淐aptain Clutch鈥� Marie-Philip Poulin has another honor to add to her already celebrated hockey career in being voted the IIHF鈥檚 Female Player of the Year.
Poulin earned 33.1% of the votes in finishing ahead of five Americans, with Ottawa Charge rookie goalie Gwyneth Philips second with 22.3% of the votes, the IIHF announced Wednesday. U.S. national team captain and the inaugural winner of award three years ago, Hilary Knight, finished third at 20.2%.
The IIHF did not reveal the specific totals submitted by more than 100 voters made up of media and federation officials.
The 34-year-old Poulin is coming off a year in which she earned MVP honors at with a tournament-leading 12 points (four goals, eight assists) for Canada鈥檚 silver medal-winning team. The Montreal Victoire captain is also a PWHL MVP finalist after leading the league with 19 goals and finishing fourth with 26 points in 30 games.
Poulin is a four-time Olympian and earned her 鈥淐lutch鈥� nickname for scoring key goals, including the game-winners in Canada鈥檚 past three gold-medal championship wins at the Winter Games.
She's the second Canadian to earn the honor, following .
Philips, meantime, made a splash both professionally and internationally this season by capably stepping in as a backup.
From Athens, Ohio, she went 3-0 at the world championships, including a 17-save performance over the final 32 minutes of the Americans鈥� 4-3 overtime win over Canada in the title game. Philips entered the game after starter Aerin Frankel was hurt in the third period.
In the PWHL, Philips won the Ilana Kloss Trophy as playoff MVP despite Ottawa losing . Philips went 4-4 in the postseason in allowing just 13 goals on 270 shots for a .952 save percentage and 1.23 goals-against average.
Drafted by the Charge out of Northeastern, Philips took over the starting duties and helped the Charge clinch their first playoff berth after Emerance Maschmeyer was sidelined by a lower body injury in mid-March.
U.S. national team and Wisconsin defenseman Caroline Harvey (12.9%) finished fourth in the voting, followed by Frankel (7.3%). Also receiving votes were Wisconsin鈥檚 Laila Edwards and Finland national team and Charge defenseman Ronja Savolainen.
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AP women鈥檚 hockey:
John Wawrow, The Associated Press
