Wally Kilrea Jr.
{{short description|American ice hockey player}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox ice hockey player
| name = Wally Kilrea Jr.
| halloffame =
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| birth_date =
| birth_place = Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA
| death_date =
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| height_ft = 5
| height_in = 7
| weight_lb = 165
| position = Forward
| shoots = Right
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| played_for = Yale
| ntl_team =
| career_start = 1951
| career_end = 1954
}}
Walter Charles "Wally" Kilrea Jr. is an American retired ice hockey forward who was the first All-American for Yale.{{cite news|title=1953-1954 All-American Team |url=http://ahcahockey.com/allamer/1954.php |work=The American Hockey Coaches Association |accessdate=June 21, 2017}}
Career
The son of NHLer Wally Kilrea, Wally Jr. grew up around hockey and when his time came to choose his junior path, Kilrea the younger chose to head to college. He joined Yale's varsity team in 1951, after a year on the freshman team, and provided a spark to the Bulldog's offense. He led the Bulldogs in scoring as a sophomore and helped the team reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 1952. The team finished in 3rd place after losing a nail-biter against Colorado College in the semifinal and Kilrea made the All-Tournament Second Team.{{cite news|title=NCAA Frozen Four Records|url=http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/frozen_4/2009/f4recs.pdf|publisher=NCAA.org|accessdate=June 19, 2013}}
Kilrea continued to play well for Yale, leading the team in scoring each of his three seasons with the team. He was named team captain for his senior season{{cite news|title=YALE MEN'S HOCKEY RESULTS, 1895 -2019 |url=https://s3.amazonaws.com/yalebulldogs.com/documents/2019/6/25/YearxYearthrough2018-19Yalehockey_docx_-2-.pdf |work=Yale Bulldogs |accessdate=July 26, 2020}} and scored a then-program record 28 assists.{{cite news|title=YALE HOCKEY RECORDS, STAT LEADERS |url=https://s3.amazonaws.com/yalebulldogs.com/documents/2020/6/16/stat_leaders.pdf |work=Yale Bulldogs |accessdate=July 26, 2020}} Kilrea finished with a new program record of 115 points and was the first Bulldog to hit the century mark (assists were not an official stat prior to 1934). For his tremendous season, Kilrea was named as an AHCA First Team All-American in 1954.{{cite news|title=1953-1954 All-American Team |url=http://ahcahockey.com/allamer/1954.php |work=The American Hockey Coaches Association |accessdate=June 21, 2017}}
Statistics
=Regular season and playoffs<ref>{{cite news|title=Scoring by Season |url=https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/rpiathletics.com/documents/2017/1/20/RPI_Mens_Hockey_Scoring_Statistics.pdf |work=RPI Engineers |accessdate=July 24, 2020}}</ref>=
| border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" style="text-align:center; width:60em" | ||||||||
| bgcolor="#e0e0e0"
! colspan="3" bgcolor="#ffffff" | ! rowspan="99" bgcolor="#ffffff" | ! colspan="5" | Regular season ! rowspan="99" bgcolor="#ffffff" | ! colspan="5" | Playoffs | ||||||||
| bgcolor="#e0e0e0"
! Season ! Team ! League ! GP ! G ! A ! Pts ! PIM ! GP ! G ! A ! Pts ! PIM | ||||||||
| 1951–52
| Yale | — | 12 | 24 | 36 | —
| — | — | — | — | — |
| bgcolor="f0f0f0"
| 1952–53 | Yale | — | 19 | 14 | 33 | —
| — | — | — | — | — |
| 1953–54
| Yale | — | 18 | 28 | 46 | —
| — | — | — | — | — |
| bgcolor="#e0e0e0"
! colspan="3" | NCAA totals ! — | 49 | 66 | 115 | —
! — | — | — | — | — |
Awards and honors
| class="wikitable"
! Award ! Year ! |
| NCAA All-Tournament Second Team
| 1952 |
| AHCA Second Team All-American
| 1953–54 |
References
{{reflist|50em}}
External links
- {{Ice hockey stats|elite=283826|hockeydb=166494}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilrea, Wally Jr.}}
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:American ice hockey forwards
Category:Ice hockey players from Pennsylvania
Category:Sportspeople from Hershey, Pennsylvania