The American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) announced its finalists for the 2019 Spencer Penrose Award, given annually to the CCM/AHCA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Coach of the Year. Among the nominees was American International College ice hockey head coach Eric Lang. The award's winner will be announced prior to the commencement of the Frozen Four in Buffalo, New York on April 10, 2019.

Lang, who was named the Atlantic Hockey Conference's Coach of the Year, is one of ten nominees for the award. He is the first coach in the history of the program to be nominated for the award.

Lang led the Yellow Jackets to the program's best season in its history, compiling a record of 23-17-1 and including a mark of 18-9-1 in AHC play. The team captured the regular season title and followed that by defeating Army West Point two games to one in the AHC Quarterfinal and then topped Robert Morris University and Niagara University by identical 3-2 scores in overtime in the league's Semifinal and Championship to claim its first Jack Riley Memorial Trophy and an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. There, the Yellow Jackets upended No. 1 St. Cloud State 2-1 in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the tournament before falling 3-0 to No. 6 Denver in the West Region Final. The team's 23 wins were by far the most in the Division I era, as were its 129 goals scored.

Apart from the team accolades, a number of individual records were broken this season. Junior forward Blake Christensen set a new standard for assists and points in a season by compiling a 16-31-47 stat line, while junior goalkeeper Zackarias Skog set new benchmarks across all eras of the program with 20 wins and five shutouts and was named Most Outstanding Player of the Atlantic Hockey Championship Tournament. Junior defenseman Patrik Demel also broke the team's record for +/- at a +16 rating.

The Spencer Penrose Award, which has been given every year since 1951, is named after Spencer Penrose, the Colorado Springs benefactor who built the Broadmoor Hotel Complex, site of the first 10 NCAA championship hockey tournaments. The award has been won once by an AHC coach, with RIT's Wayne Wilson taking the accolade in 2010; additionally, Army West Point's legendary Jack Riley won the award in 1957 and 1960, long before the founding of the AHC.