USCHO.com handed out a pair of major awards today and both were bestowed on members of the University of Minnesota Duluth hockey program.

Defenseman Scott Perunovich was chosen the national Rookie of the Year while Scott Sandelin collared the Coach of the Year honor.

This past winter, Perunovich became the second defenseman to ever lead the Bulldogs in scoring as he racked up a 36 points (a record for a first-year UMD blueliner) on 11 goals and a team-leading 25 assists in 42 games. He also paced the 2017-18 Bulldogs in plus-minus rating (+22) and ranked second in power play goals (4). The recipient of the Tim Taylor Award (American Hockey Coaches Association National Rookie of the Year) and a AHCA first Team All-American, Perunovich topped all NCAA freshmen defensemen in scoring and was third among all rookies in both points and assists.  This past weekend, he was chosen to the NCAA Frozen Four All-Tournament team after he and the Bulldogs captured the national title.

Sandelin capped off his 18th season behind the Bulldog bench by guiding his troops to their second NCAA championship las Saturday night in St. Paul. That gave Sandelin an all-time record of 17-6-0 in NCAA Tournament play (5-2 in the Frozen Four) and that .739 winning percentage is best among all active coaches and trails only the late Herb Brooks (.889 at Minnesota), Vic Heylinger (.800 at Michigan) and John "Gino" Gasparini (.789 at North Dakota) among all NCAA bench bosses. UMD went 25-16-3 overall in 2017-18, marking the seventh time in the past 10 seasons it eclipsed the 21-victory mark. The Bulldogs also qualified for the NCAA Tournament for a program-record fourth consecutive year and back-to-back Frozen Fours for only the second time in program history.