North Dakota’s Brad Berry and Cornell’s Mike Schafer have been chosen co-winners of the 2020 Spencer Penrose Award as the CCM/AHCA Coach of the Year for men’s Division I hockey.
The honor is a first for both coaches and represents just the second tie in the award’s history. In 1966, Amo Bessone of Michigan State and Len Ceglarski of Clarkson shared the honor.
This season, Berry won the NCHC’s Herb Brooks Coach of the Year award for the second time in his five years as head coach. Berry led UND to a resurgent 2019-20 campaign that saw the Fighting Hawks go 26-5-4 overall (17-4-3 NCHC), winning the NCHC’s regular-season title and earning the top spot in both the national polls and the PairWise for the bulk of the season.
Berry’s assistant coaches this season were Dane Jackson, Karl Goehring and Jason Ulmer.
Cornell finished the 2019-20 with a record of 23-2-4 (18-2-2 ECAC Hockey), and won nine straight games down the stretch. They went 9-1-2 this season against teams that finished the season ranked in the top 20 or receiving votes. His ECAC peers recognized him with his fifth Tim Taylor Coach of the Year Award, the most ever for any ECAC coach.
Assisting Schafer this year were Ben Syer, Sean Flanagan and Mitch Stephens.
The Spencer Penrose Award is named in memory of the Colorado Springs benefactor who built the Broadmoor Hotel Complex, site of the first 10 NCAA championship hockey tournaments.
