by AMHERST, Mass. – UMass hockey freshman defenseman Brandon Montour (Six Nations/Lenape) has been named the Hockey East Rookie of the Month for January 2015, the league office announced on Thursday. The honor is Montour’s first and marks the second monthly award for the Minutemen this season.
In his first full month of college hockey, Montour led UMass with 10 points in eight games in January on two goals and eight assists, including four multi-point games, and posted an even rating. Seven of the defenseman’s 10 points came in special teams situations with a goal and three assists on the power play and a goal and two assists shorthanded, factoring in all of the squad’s three shorthanded tallies on the month. He was named the No. 1 star of the game on Jan. 23 at Merrimack and the No. 3 star of the game on both Jan. 2 vs. UConn and Jan. 16 vs. New Hampshire.
Montour, a native of Ohsweken, Ontario, has moved into a tie for eighth in the nation in scoring among freshmen defensemen (12 points), despite having played just 11 career games. His 10 points tied for third nationally in freshmen scoring for the month of January, second in assists. Montour averaged 1.25 points per-game in January and 1.00 assists per-game, which ranked third in the nation among all defensemen in points per-game, tied for second in assists per-game, while he tied for second nationally in points by a defenseman for the month.
