The United Collegiate Hockey Conference announced its 2023-24 Men’s Award Winners and All-Conference teams on Tuesday, February 27. The award winners were selected through a thorough survey of the league’s 11 head coaches.

UCHC regular season champion Utica University, the No. 1 team in the current USCHO.com national poll, who is set to host Stevenson University in the league championship game on March 2, garnered four of the five of individual award winners and five all-conference selections.
 
Utica senior defenseman Brian Scoville was named both the 2023-24 UCHC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. He becomes the first student-athlete in league history to sweep both awards in the same season. A native of Agawam, Mass., Scoville is currently second among all Division III defensemen with 30 points and 1.15 points per game. He has tallied nine goals and added 23 assists for 32 points in 28 games and has a plus-41 rating, which is among the best in the nation. Scoville has scored five power-play goals and added a pair of game-winning tallies. He excelled in league play recording seven goals and 20 assists in 20 UCHC contests. Overall, Scoville has tallied at least a point in 19 games and has six multiple-point outings.
 
Scoville is Utica’s fifth UCHC Player of the Year and the is fourth Pioneer to win UCHC Defensive Player of the Year alongside 2018 All-American Dalton Carter, Daniel Frtiz, 2022 All-American  and 2023 All-American Jayson Dobay.

Stevenson’s Ty Outen was named the UCHC Goaltender of the Year and garnered All-UCHC first team accolades. Outen, a native of Tampa, Fla., is in the midst of a tremendous season for the Mustangs, compiling an 19-5-1 mark, while recording a 1.77 goals against average and a .945 save percentage to go along with four shutouts. Outen is fifth in the nation with 749 saves and seventh in save percentage. He has made at least 30 saves in 12 contests this season. Outen was a four-time UCHC Goaltender of the Week in 2023-24. It is the third straight season that a Stevenson goaltender earned this award.

Utica’s Eric Vitale was named the conference’s Rookie of the Year. Vitale has tallied 25 points on 11 goals and 14 assists in 26 games played, while recording a plus-19 rating. He has two power-play goals on the year and has eight multiple-point games. Vitale, the UCHC Rookie of the Week on Feb. 5, has excelled over the last 10 games, registering eight goals and seven assists over that span, including his first collegiate hat-trick on Feb. 2. Vitale, who hails from Toronto, Ontario, is Utica’s third UCHC Rookie of the Year, joining Conor Landrigan (2017-18) and Brandon Osmundson (2019-20).

Utica head coach Gary Heenan was named the Conference’s Coach of the Year by his peers for the third consecutive season and fourth time overall. Heenan has led the Pioneers to the No. 2 ranking in the USCHO.com Division III national poll, a current record of 22-3-2 and a 19-0-1 record in conference play (58 of 60 possible points) for a team that won the UCHC regular season title for a seventh straight year. Utica, who is riding a 16-game winning streak, has advanced to the conference championship game for the sixth time in seven seasons.
 
Stevenson forward Liam McCanney, who was the 2023 UCHC Player of the Year, was an All-UCHC first team pick for the second straight year. Outen joined McCanney on the first team, while UCHC leading scorer Logan vande Meeraker of Alvernia University, Utica forward Matt Wood, Scoville and Wilkes University defenseman Cole Jungwirth. also garnered All-UCHC first team accolades.

The full list of UCHC award winners is listed below.
 
2023-24 UCHC Men's Ice Hockey Award Winners
Player of the Year: Brian Scoville, Utica
Defensive Player of the Year: Brian Scoville, Utica
Goaltender of the Year: Ty Outen, Stevenson
Rookie of the Year: Eric Vitale, Utica
Coach of the Year: Gary Heenan, Utica

First Team All-UCHC
Forward: Logan vande Meeraker, Alvernia
Forward: Liam McCanney, Stevenson
Forward: Matt Wood, Utica
Defense: Brian Scoville, Utica
Defense: Cole Jungwirth, Wilkes
Goaltender: Ty Outen, Stevenson

Second Team All-UCHC
Forward: Shane Murphy, Utica
Forward: Billy Berry, Wilkes
Forward: Nick Swain, Wilkes
Defense: Jack Karlsson, Stevenson
Defense: Kimball Johnson, Utica
Defense: Joe Johnson, Wilkes
Goaltender: Ethan Roberts, Utica
 
UCHC All-Rookie Team
Forward: Rhett Evjen, Stevenson
Forward: Aiden Hughes, Utica
Forward: Eric Vitale, Utica
Defense: Justin Fernet, Manhattanville
Defense: Griffen Barr, Utica
Goaltender: Jackson Fellner, Alvernia
 
ABOUT THE UNITED COLLEGIATE HOCKEY CONFERENCE
The United Collegiate Hockey Conference is a collaborative effort between eleven institutions to provide a competitive environment and structure for NCAA Division III men's and women's ice hockey in the Eastern United States. Our membership encompasses a wide geographic area spanning from Central and Western New York to the greater Pittsburgh and Baltimore areas. In its fifth season, the UCHC will incorporate the efforts of ice hockey student-athletes from Arcadia University, Alvernia University, Chatham University, King's College, Lebanon Valley College, Manhattanville College, Nazareth College, Neumann University, Stevenson University, Utica College, and Wilkes University into their strong, but evolving membership that strives for on-ice excellence while also preparing student athletes for their off-ice futures. For more on the UCHC, visit the league's homepage at http://www.TheUCHC.com, or follow the league on Twitter at http://www.Twitter.com/UCHCHockey.