April 7, 2017
By Joanne Norell
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Notre Dame junior forward Anders Bjork was named a Second Team East CCM/AHCA All-American on Friday, becoming the 13th All-American in Irish hockey history.
Bjork is the first Irish All-American since defenseman Robbie Russo was also named to the East’s Second Team following the 2014-15 season, and he Notre Dame’s seventh forward to earn the honor. He joins father, Kirt, as the only father-son duo to earn All-America recognition while skating for the Irish, as well as cousin Erik Condra, who was a second-team pick in 2008-09. All told, Notre Dame’s 13 honorees have combined for 14 All-America honors.
The Bjorks are one of five father-son combinations to earn All-America honors, and one of two to complete a pair this season. They join fellow 2017 Second Team (West) honoree Luc Snuggerud of Omaha and father, Dave, who was a 1989 second-teamer from Minnesota, as the fourth and fifth father-son All-Americans. Also in the group are two-time Wisconsin All-American Mike Eaves (1977-78) and sons Ben (2002-03) and Patrick Eaves (2004-05), who were also two-time designees at Boston College; Marc Chorney (1981) and Taylor Chorney (2007), who both attended North Dakota; and Bob Gaudreau (Brown, 1966) and Rob Gaudreau (Providence, 1992).
Bjork was also one of six Hockey East student-athletes to garner All-America honors.
Bjork skated in 39 games this season, totaling 21 goals and 31 assists to lead the Irish in scoring with a career-high 52 points. His 52 points tied for fourth in Hockey East and tied for ninth in the country. He has six game-winning goals this year, which ranks tied for second in Hockey East and tied for fourth in the country. The Irish were 22-5-2 this season when he registered at least one point and 11-3-0 when he scored at least one goal.
In Notre Dame’s first two games of the NCAA Championship in Manchester, New Hampshire, Bjork led the Irish with a two-goal performance against No. 1 seed Minnesota, including the game-winning goal, and tallied the primary assist on all three goals in a 3-2 overtime win over UMass Lowell. He had five points on the weekend and was named the NCAA Northeast Regional Most Outstanding Player.
A fifth-round pick by the Boston Bruins in the 2014 NHL Draft (146th overall), Bjork posted 16 multi-point games this season, including four-point efforts against Arizona State (Oct. 8) and UConn (Oct. 28). Bjork is the first Irish player to reach the 50-point plateau since 2010-11, when T.J. Tynan had 54 points.
Skating in 115 career games, Bjork has scored 40 goals and added 69 assists for 109 points, which ranks tied for 42nd on Notre Dame’s career points list. He notched his 100th point with an assist versus Providence (Feb. 18), becoming the 51st player in program history to reach 100 career points and the first junior to do so since Tynan and Anders Lee in 2013.
Bjork is one of 25 players nationwide to earn All-America honors this season, with the announcement coming on Friday evening.
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Joanne Norell, athletics communications assistant director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2014 and coordinates communications efforts for the Notre Dame women’s soccer, men’s tennis, women’s tennis and fencing programs. Norell is a 2011 graduate of Purdue University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in mass communication, and earned her master’s degree in sports industry management from Georgetown University in 2013.