CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. — The American Hockey Coaches Association announced finalists for the 2023 Spencer Penrose Award, naming Quinnipiac head coach Rand Pecknold one of eight nominees for the annual distinction. 

The award, named in memory of the Colorado Springs benefactor who built the Broadmoor Hotel Complex, site of the first 10 NCAA championship hockey tournaments, is annually given to the CCM/AHCA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Coach of the Year, and is selected by the nation’s 60 NCAA Division I men’s hockey head coaches. 

Representing ECAC Hockey as the 2023 Tim Taylor Men’s Coach of the Year is Quinnipiac’s Rand Pecknold, who was honored with the Spencer Penrose Award in 2016 after the Bobcats finished the season as the national championship runners-up. 

This season, Pecknold coached the Quinnipiac Bobcats to an unprecedented 20-win season during league play, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since the 1988-89 season. They captured their third straight Cleary Cup as the league’s regular season champions, and have maintained a 32-4-3 record through tournament championship play and the first two rounds of the national tournament. Next weekend, they head to Tampa for the 2023 Men’s Frozen Four.

The award will be presented on Wednesday, April 26, at the 2023 AHCA Convention at the Naples Grande Hotel in Naples, Florida, in partnership with CCM Hockey.

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