Scott Perunovich's awards haul continued Thursday as the Minnesota Duluth defenseman was named the NCHC's player of the year. The junior from Hibbing, Minn., and Hobey Baker Award top 10 finalist also earned NCHC offensive defenseman of the year award for the third consecutive year and shared the conference's three stars award in honors given earlier in the week.
Also honored Thursday by the NCHC were North Dakota's Brad Berry as coach of the year and Miami (Ohio) forward Karch Bachman as winner of the senior scholar athlete award.
Perunovich, a junior, is the first defenseman to win the NCHC scoring title, with four goals and a league-high 28 assists in 24 conference games. The 2018 second-round draft pick of the St. Louis Blues ranked second nationally in scoring by a defenseman (6-34-40), ranked second nationally among all skaters with 34 assists and tied for the NCAA lead with 22 power-play points. He was named College Hockey News' national player of the year on Tuesday.
Perunovich beat out North Dakota junior forward Jordan Kawaguchi and St. Cloud State senior defenseman Jack Ahcan for NCHC player of the year in a vote of the eight conference coaches and eight media members.
Other honors given out by the conference this week were:
Offensive defenseman of the year: Perunovich
Defensive defenseman of the year: Colton Poolman, Sr., North Dakota
Goaltender of the year: Hunter Shepard, Sr., Minnesota Duluth
Forward of the year: Jordan Kawaguchi, Jr., North Dakota
Defensive forward of the year: Justin Richards, Jr., Minnesota Duluth
Rookie of the year: Shane Pinto, Fr., F, North Dakota
Sportsmanship award: Kobe Roth, Jr., F, Minnesota Duluth
Three stars award: Kawaguchi and Perunovich
Postgraduate scholarship: Erich Fear, Sr., D, Denver
Media excellence award: Dave Starman, CBS Sports Network
