Football has the Heisman. Men’s hockey has the Hobey.

Women’s hockey has the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award – and six players with Pennsylvania ties who are nominees to win it.

Thirty NCAA Division I players have been nominated for the 15th annual award, which will be presented March 17 in Duluth, Minn., during the Women’s Frozen Four championship.

The list will be winnowed to 10 finalists on March 1, then three on March 8.

The nominees comprise 21 forwards, five defensemen and four goalies; they represent 15 different schools in each of the four D-I leagues, including College Hockey America.

Pennsylvania’s two D-I programs – Mercyhurst College in Erie and Robert Morris University near Pittsburgh – belong to the CHA and account for a total of five nominees:

Mercyhurst

• Christine Bestland, sophomore forward from Brunkild, Manitoba
• Bailey Bram, senior forward from Ste. Anne, Manitoba
• Kelley Steadman, junior forward from Plattsburgh, N.Y.

RMU

• Thea Imbrogno, sophomore forward from Etobicoke, Ontario
• Rebecca Vint, freshman forward from Caledon, Ontario

Meanwhile, Erie native Jen Schoullis, a senior forward attending the University of Minnesota, also was nominated.

Mercyhurst's Bram was a top 10 finalist in 2010, the same year that teammate Vicki Bendus won the Kazmaier Award.

The award’s namesake played hockey at Princeton University in the 1980s. She died in 1990 at age 28 from a rare blood disease.