ST. PAUL, Minn. – Defensemen Zeev Buium and Sean Behrens of the Denver Pioneers hockey team each earned accolades for the 2023-24 regular season from the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, as Buium was selected as both Rookie of the Year and Offensive Defenseman of the Year and Behrens was named Defensive Defenseman of the Year.
 
The NCHC announced the award winners on Thursday night at its annual awards celebration at the St. Paul Event Center on the eve of the Frozen Faceoff. Denver plays St. Cloud State in the conference semifinals on Friday at 6:30 p.m. MT at Xcel Energy Center.
 
Denver's defensive duo are the fifth and sixth different blueliners to we recognized with NCHC awards in program history, as Joey LaLeggia was named Defenseman of the Year in both 2014 and 2015, Will Butcher was named Offensive Defenseman of the Year in 2017, and Mike Benning (Offensive) and Justin Lee (Defensive) both picked up defending honors last season in 2023.
 
Buium ranks seventh among NCAA freshmen and is tied for first among all defensemen in the country in scoring with 44 points. He leads DU rear guards with nine goals and his 35 assists are first on the team and tied for fifth overall in the NCAA, which are also second-most among all D-men and tied for the second-highest amount by a rookie. Buium led all NCHC defensemen and ranked second with 31 points in 24 conference games, the second-most points ever in NCHC play by a blueliner (Scott Perunovich, 32, 2019-20).
 
The San Diego, California, native produced a career-long 12-game point streak (4g/17a) from Nov. 3-Dec. 9, which was the longest point streak by a freshman defenseman in the NCAA in more than 21 years (online databases presently do not go back further than 2002) and the longest by a Pioneer since Bobby Brink had a 14-game run from Dec. 31, 2021-Feb. 19, 2022 (7g/21a). Overall, he recorded 29 points (6g/23a) across a 17-game period from Nov. 3-Jan. 26.
 
The rear guard has registered a career-high four points on two occasions this season, beginning with a four-assist night on Nov. 25 against Yale—the most helpers by a DU defensemen in an outing going back to 2002. It was also just the third instance since 2016 that a rookie D-man in the NCAA had four assists in a contest. He also scored and added three helpers later in the season on Jan. 20 at Omaha.
 
Buium has also recorded 29 blocked shots, 18 penalty minutes and a plus-28 rating while appearing in 36-of-38 games this season. The only two outings he didn't play this year was while helping Team USA win the gold medal at the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship.
 
Behrens leads the team with 58 blocked shots, is second on the squad with 51 penalty minutes and owns a plus-22 rating on the campaign. He has blocked a career-high four shots on six occasions this season and has denied three or more shots in 12 contests.
 
Offensively, Behrens is third among all Denver defensemen in scoring with 27 points and ranks tied for fourth overall at DU with 24 assists. He went on a seven-game point streak from Oct. 8-Nov. 4, which saw him total 10 helpers while setting a career-long assist stretch.
 
The Barrington, Illinois, native has appeared in all 38 games this season and skated in his 100th career contest on Feb. 24 versus Miami. The D-man tallied his first career game-winning goal and finished with a plus-4 rating on March 2 at St. Cloud State, and he registered his second game-winner last Friday, March 16 against Minnesota Duluth in Game 2 of the NCHC Quarterfinals.
 
Four other Pioneers were finalists for NCHC end-of-season awards. Junior Jack Devine was up for both Player and Forward of the Year, junior Shai Buium was up for both Offensive and Defensive Defenseman of the Year, junior Carter King was up for Defensive Forward of the Year and David Carle was up for Coach of the Year.
 
The NCHC also recognized its All-Conference, All-Rookie and Academic All-Conference Teams throughout the awards ceremony.
 
Devine and Zeev Buium were named to the All-NCHC First Team while junior, forward Massimo Rizzo and Shai Buium were chosen to the Second Team and Behrens was an Honorable Mention. Freshmen Miko Matikka and Zeev Buium were named to the NCHC All-Rookie Team, with each being the only unanimous selection in the group.
 
Denver had 15 returning players recognized on the 2023-24 NCHC Academic All-Conference Team as Kent Anderson, Tristan Broz, Shai Buium, Connor Caponi, Jack Caruso, Matt Davis, Jack Devine, Carter King, Tristan Lemyre, Rieger Lorenz, Lucas Olvestad, Massimo Rizzo, Aidan Thompson, McKade Webster and Jared Wright all made the list. Anderson, Davis, Devine, King, Lorenz, Olvestad, Thompson and Wright were also named NCHC Distinguished Scholar-Athletes by posting a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or better.