Sophomore defenseman Maury Edwards, already named to the New England College Hockey Writers All-Star team and the All-Hockey East first team, earned the River Hawks’ Most Valuable Player Award this afternoon at UMass Lowell’s breakup banquet. Edwards led the team in scoring for most of the year and finished second by one point to Scott Campbell, netting 11 goals and 29 points.
Junior defensemen Jeremy Dehner and Nick Schaus shared the Best Defensive Player Award, while freshman forward Michael Budd was named the team’s Most Improved Player from the start of the season to the end. Freshman center David Vallorani was named the River Hawks’ Rookie of the Year.
The Unsung Hero Award went to senior forward Nick Monroe of Groton, and freshman center Matt Ferreira, whose college career was delayed by a year because of a brain tumor, was given the Coaches’ Perseverance Award.
Senior forward Mark Roebothan won the Gus Coutu Award for exemplifying best the spirit of the UML hockey program, and junior forward Kory Falite of Billerica won the UMLHockey.com Award for the second straight year as the player who made the most contributions during home games.
Mike Kuenzler, who engineered the dramatic upswing in attendance at the Tsongas Arena, was honored with the Marc Connelly Award for having a significant impact on the program, and sophomore center Scott Campbell won the G. Harvey Chandler Award as the team’s top scorer. Campbell led the River Hawks with 30 points.