Carey Price first goalie voted Canada's male athlete of the year by CP
Montreal Canadiens goalie is first hockey player to win the honour since Sidney Crosby
Carey Price — a hockey talent honed on frozen creeks in B.C. — has been voted Canada's male athlete of the year.
The Montreal Canadiens goaltender won the Lionel Conacher Award in a landslide.
The 28-year-old took 53 perc ent of the vote in a Canadian Press poll of sports editors and broadcasters across the country.
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Vancouver-born Price's father Jerry Price was a goal tender drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers and his mother is Lynda Price was the former chief of the Ulkatcho First Nation.
As a youngster Price's father taught him to goal tend in winter on a frozen creek after the family moved to Anahim Lake in Northern B.C.
To attend practices and games in Williams Lake (which is 320 kilometres away) Price's father bought a plane to fly him to the rink.
Runner up for male athlete of the year was sprinter Andre de Grasse, who garnered 28 per cent of the vote.
Price had a dominant season in goal. He led the National Hockey League in goals-against average and save percentage while leading Montreal to second place overall.
He won the Hart Trophy as the league's most valuable player and the Vezina Trophy as top goaltender as well as two other NHL awards.
Price is the first hockey player to be named male athlete of the year since in 2010 and the first goalie to ever take home the honour.