Freshman defenseman Brennan Kapcheck of the American International College ice hockey team has been named the 2017-18 Atlantic Hockey Conference Rookie of the Year, the league announced on Thursday, March 15.

Kapcheck is the first AIC athlete to win an individual major conference award from Atlantic Hockey in the program's history.

During the 2017-18 regular season, Kapcheck led AIC in scoring with 22 points (six goals, 16 assists) after appearing in all 34 conference contests. He ranked fifth in points among the conference's defensemen and third in points among conference rookies; he additionally ranked first among the conference's rookies in assists.

Following five postseason games, including a two-game first-round sweep of Niagara on March 2 and 3, Kapcheck added four more points to set the AIC Division I single-season standard for scoring by a defenseman at 26 points.

Defensively, he chipped in 40 blocked shots and helped AIC drop its opponents' shots-on-goal average from 31.6 shots on goal per game in 2016-17 to 26.9 this season. He was part of an impressive turnaround for the Yellow Jackets, who added seven wins to their total from a year ago, finishing 2017-18 with a 15-20-4 record.

Kapcheck was named Atlantic Hockey Rookie of the Month in October after embarking on a five-game point streak between October 10 and 20; that span included a goal in a 3-2 overtime upset of No. 11 Penn State University on October 20. Kapcheck was additionally a Hobey Baker Memorial Award nominee and a semifinalist for the Walter Brown Award.

He was previously named to the league's All-Rookie Team, along with freshman goaltender Stefano Durante. Sophomore defenseman Janis Janks was also an All-Conference selection, being selected to the Third Team.

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