The Massachusetts hockey team held its banquet this past Saturday where sophomore forward Steven Iacobellis was named captain for the 2015-16 season.  I can’t speak for his leadership in the locker room, but there’s no double he has been impactful when he’s been on the ice.  This past season the team was undefeated in games where he scored a goal.  He missed a couple games due to injury and I felt his absence as a playmaker was very noticeable.  I personally named him as my Underrated Player of the Year and  I think Iacobellis has made a good case for this selection in his two years in the maroon and white.

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Of course the other main highlight of the banquet was the announcement of the team awards:

Team MVP – Frank Vatrano
Minuteman Award (to the player representing dedication, determination, character and sportsmanship) – Troy Power
Rookie of the Year – Dennis Kravchenko
Jack Caniff Unsung Hero Award – Shane Walsh & Oleg Yevenko
Most Improved – Riley McDougall

I can’t argue with any of those.  They’re very similar to the awards I announced shortly after the season ended.  Congrats to all the deserving honorees.

And of course the seniors were honored one last time.

Here’s the season highlight video shown at the banquet.

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The flurry of commitments continue as UMass picked up one up from defenseman Nick Jenny, likely for 2016.

Jenny played this past season for the Ohio AAA Blue Jackets Under 18 team (Henry Dill also played a number of levels for the Blue Jacket program).  The 5’10” right shot had 7 goals and 21 assists in 32 games for the U18 Blue Jackets this past season.  Jenny will be looking to catch on with an USHL team this coming season.

I’ll have more on Jenny in my next recruit update.  That will likely be posted in the next day or two and will include the news of the recent NLI signings.

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There was a bit of schedule news to come out of the banquet as well.  A few more games are known from next year’s schedule: