Northern Michigan University goaltender Oliver Auyeung-Ashton, left, gets a glove on a Colorado College shot with Wildcats’ defenseman Joe Schiller, right, in on the play during their game played at the Berry Events Center in Marquette on Oct. 17. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — In what might be just the beginning of his awards haul this spring, freshman goaltender Oliver Auyeung-Ashton of the Northern Michigan University hockey team earned a second award in less than a week from the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.

The league named the first-year player from Coquitlam, British Columbia, to the CCHA Rookie Team.

He was one of three Rookie Team honorees also named a finalist for one of the CCHA’s major awards, his being the CCHA Rookie of the Year that was bestowed upon St. Thomas forward Lucas Van Vliet at the start of this week.

Auyeung-Ashton had already been named to the Watch List for the Mike Richter Award, an award given to the best NCAA goalie, and as a nominee for the Hobey Baker Award, the “Heisman Trophy” of college hockey for best overall player.

The rest of the CCHA Rookie Team is Van Vliet, Augustana forward Leo Bulgakov, St. Thomas forward Nathan Pilling, Bowling Green State defenseman Brayden Crampton and St. Thomas defenseman Hayes Hundley.

Auyeung-Ashton had an exceptional year even while hampered by an injury at midseason, missing time from mid-November to the start of January.

He played in 18 games, posting a nifty 2.67 goals against average and .930 saves percentage. In the CCHA, his saves percentage was second only to Augustana’s Josh Kotai, while his goals-against was fourth among goalies who played at least 18 games.

Nationally for freshman goalies playing at least 18 games, Auyeung-Ashton ranked No. 1 in saves percentage, ahead of No. 2 Jack Ivankovic of Michigan’s .922, with his goals against being 10th.

He played in his first game at NMU during the Wildcats’ second weekend of the season on Oct. 10 at Ohio State, coming on in relief of William Gramme, who had made an NMU-record 34 saves in one period and 65 saves in a game the previous weekend, Northern’s season opener at UMass.

Auyeung-Ashton stopped all eight shots he faced in the Friday relief appearance, then stopped 45 of 47 shots on Saturday in his first collegiate start for a weekend .964 saves percentage and 1.53 goals against to earn CCHA Rookie of the Week.

The 45 saves was the most by an NMU freshman in his first start in the “modern” post-2004 era, and only the ninth time a freshman in the modern NCAA era made 45 saves in his first start.

For the regular season, he posted four of the 12 highest single-game saves totals in the CCHA, each a game with 40-plus saves, and had the seven highest saves totals in a game backstopped by one of the league’s freshman goaltenders.

A top performance came in a 38-save shutout of Bemidji State on Jan. 30, the third most for a freshman and sixth most overall in a shutout nationwide for the season.

And when he had returned to start calendar year 2026, he had back-to-back 28-save nights in consecutive 2-1 losses at Lake Superior State.

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release reviewing the honor. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.