Atlantic Hockey announced its major team and individual award winners for the 2015-16 season at the league’s annual awards ceremony Thursday in Rochester, N.Y.
Winning the Player of the Year Award was Robert Morris senior forward and Hobey Baker top-10 finalist Zac Lynch, who also received the Scoring Trophy in recognition of his 39-point conference season on 16 goals and 23 assists during conference play. He is the national leader in shorthanded goals (8) and ranks tied for second in points with 52.
Mercyhurst defenseman Lester Lancaster was tabbed Rookie of the Year. Lancaster tied his teammate and fellow freshman Derek Barach for the Atlantic Hockey rookie scoring lead with 26 conference points, tying the Atlantic Hockey rookie defenseman scoring record with RIT’s Al Mazur, who set the record in the 2006-07 season.
The Coach of the Year was awarded to Air Force’s Frank Serratore. The Falcons finished in a tie for second place with Holy Cross after being picked to finish seventh in the preseason coaches’ poll.
RIT’s Chase Norrish took home Best Defenseman honors. The sophomore recorded 18 points in conference play on seven goals and 11 assists.
The Best Defensive Forward was Air Force senior Ben Carey, who scored nine goals in conference play, but four of those came while the Falcons were down a player, ranking only behind Lynch for the conference lead in shorthanded goals. In all, Carey totaled 20 points. Helping Carey’s case is the fact that he committed just two penalties for four minutes during the 28-game conference season and was also awarded the Individual Sportsmanship Award.
American International received the Team Sportsmanship Award.
The Goaltending Trophy was awarded to Air Force freshman Shane Starrett.
