For the second time this year, a former University of Massachusetts athlete is on top of the sports world.
On Monday night, the Jonathan Quick-led Los Angeles Kings clinched the Stanley Cup title with a convincing 6-1 victory in Game 6 over the New Jersey Devils. Quick, a former UMass goaltender and the first Stanley Cup winner in the school’s history, was also awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy, given to the Stanley Cup playoffs’ Most Valuable Player.
“It’s outstanding,” Quick told reporters after the clinching win. “I couldn’t be more proud of this group. We had to fight for everything. Nothing was given to us.”
Quick was instrumental in bringing a Kings team that barely made the playoffs as a No. 8 seed in the Western Conference to the championship. In the playoffs, Quick notched an impressive 16-4 record with a 1.41 goals against average and a .946 save percentage. And in the Stanley Cup Finals alone, he only let in seven goals in the six games, stopping 125 of 132 shots.
The postseason performance followed a record-breaking regular season for Quick, who logged a career-best 69 games and won 35 games for the Kings. His 1.95 goals against average, .929 save percentage and league-leading 10 shutouts were all franchise records. Quick is a finalist for the Vezina Trophy, which is given to the NHL’s top goaltender.
The championship run comes just over four months after former Minuteman football wide receiver Victor Cruz helped the New York Giants win the Super Bowl. The duo’s accomplishments make UMass the first college ever to boast a Conn Smythe winner and Super Bowl champion in the same year.
Quick played for UMass from 2005-2007, and led the Minutemen to their first NCAA championship appearance in 2007. That season, Quick posted UMass single-season records with 19 wins, 37 appearances, 1,046 saves and 2,224 minutes played. His career marks for save percentage (.926), goals against average (2.40) and saves per game (28.96) all still stand as program records.
Stephen Hewitt can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @steve_hewitt.
