Men's Ice Hockey

Blake Pietila Named Student-Athlete of the Year

The Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) recognizes Michigan Technological University senior Blake Pietila as the conference’s 2023-24 Student-Athlete of the Year, as voted on by the Faculty Athletics Representatives from each member institution. 

A native of Howell, Mich., Pietila earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, is pursuing a Master of Business Administration and holds a 3.62 cumulative grade point average. 

For his senior design project as an undergraduate, Pietila worked with a worldwide steel manufacturer and a UK-based engineering firm to solve an issue involving the interior design of an autonomous electric vehicle. Aiding a team that helped find a way that would allow the vehicle to be converted from single use to multi-use, they were able to design, model, and are presently testing a system that allows for the vehicle to be efficiently transitioned from package/cargo to passenger transportation. His major contributions to this project included designing a custom T-rail system that will house a ball roller bearing, allowing for translational motion along the rails, as well as doing a Finite Element Analysis (FEA) on the locking pins that secure the mechanism into place.  

Named an alternate captain for the 2023-24 season, Pietila has played in 133 career games for the Huskies, including 122 as a starter. He is 69-47-11, with a 2.13 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage, recording 21 shutouts and a total of 3,146 saves. This season, he has posted an 11-11-6 record with a 2.54 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage, so far adding one shutout to his record-breaking total. 

Pietila holds the school records for career wins, career shutouts, season shutouts (10), season goals-against average (1.81), season save percentage (.934) and most games played. The 2022-23 CCHA Player of the Year and Goaltender of the Year, he was also a Top 10 Hobey Baker Award Finalist and Mike Richter Award Finalist. 

Given annually, the award is presented to one CCHA student-athlete who performed consistently as a regular member of their CCHA varsity hockey team, displayed outstanding sportsmanship, made satisfactory progress towards a degree, displayed leadership and was active in community service off the ice, encompassing a positive culture of the institution and league. 

Last year, Minnesota State senior Brendan Furry was the second recipient of the CCHA Student-Athlete of the Year since the conference’s return in 2021-22. 

For more information, contact: 
 
Perry Laskaris 
Director of Strategic Communications & Brand Advancement 
Central Collegiate Hockey Association 
Laskaris@ccha.com 
(651) 308-1065