Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Montgomery Wins Penrose Award

Denver leader named national coach of the year.

Denver leader named national coach of the year.
Denver’s win in the Midwest Regional Final was the 100th of Jim Montgomery’s college head coaching career.

On the eve of his team’s second straight appearance in the NCAA Frozen Four, Denver head coach Jim Montgomery has been named the Spencer Penrose Award winner as the American Hockey Coaches Association’s national coach of the year.

Montgomery has led the Pioneers to the 2016-17 NCHC regular-season championship and the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. Denver will put its 31-7-4 record up against Notre Dame on Thursday, April 6, in the second semifinal game at the United Center in Chicago (9:30 p.m. ET).

Montgomery has a 100-47-18 record in four years at Denver, making the NCAA Tournament each year. The Montreal native who won an NCAA championship as a player at the University of Maine joined Denver after three season as head coach and general manager of the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints.

Montgomery was an assistant coach at Rensselaer from 2006-10 and began his coaching career at Notre Dame as a volunteer assistant coach in 2005-06.

His staff at Denver includes David Carle, Tavis MacMillan and Joe Howe.

Last year Montgomery was a guest on the College Hockey Coaches Show podcast, discussing his approach to leading the Denver program:

Listen to “Jim Montgomery, Denver” on Spreaker.

Montgomery will be presented the 2017 Spencer Penrose Award on April 26, at the AHCA’s annual convention in Naples, Fla.