University of Massachusetts hockey senior captain Bobby Trivigno has been named the recipient of the 70th Walter Brown Award, presented annually to the best American-Born Division I college hockey player in New England, the Gridiron Club of Greater Boston announced on Thursday. Trivigno earns the honor for a second straight year and is just the fourth player to win the award in back-to-back years since it was first presented in 1953.

"While the committee once again had a superb field of semifinalists this year, 25 in all, they had a relatively easy task in naming Bobby as Walter Brown Award recipient. It is hard for any player to sustain such a high level of performance that he would outshine everyone else for a second year. But Bobby's play this season, and especially his team leadership, was even more impressive than it was a year ago when UMass went all the way to the national championship," commented committee chairman Tim Costello.

Trivigno was named to the Hockey East All-Tournament Team and was the Tournament MVP for a second-straight year after helping UMass repeat as Hockey East Champions last weekend. The Setauket, New York native had three points over the seminal and final of the tournament, including factoring in both UMass goals in the 2-1 in over UConn in the title game, setting up Aaron Bohlinger's game winner in overtime.

The Setauket, New York native is a Top-10 Finalist for the 2022 Hobey Baker Award and was recently crowned the 2021-22 Hockey East Player of the Year, joining 2019 Hobey Baker winner Cale Makar as the only two Minutemen to earn that distinction. Adding to his list of accolades, Trivigno was named a unanimous 2021-22 Hockey East First Team All-Star selection, his second career Hockey East First Team nod.

Trivigno currently sits fourth in the nation in points with 48 on 20 goals and 28 assists, all career highs for the forward 36 games into the season. He ranks sixth nationally in points per-game (1.33), tied for ninth in assists and tied for eighth in goals. The February Hockey East Player of the Month has also been tabbed Hockey East Player of the Week twice this season. Trivigno has been held without a point just seven times in 36 games and never in two consecutive contests, with three point streaks of five games or longer and 14 multi-point games.

Trivigno was crowned the 2021-22 Hockey East Scoring Champion with an average of 1.33 points per game, nearly .20 higher than his closest competitor, putting up a league-best 32 points over 24 contests on 14 goals and 18 assists. He totaled 14 goals and 18 assists in league action to rank second in both categories.

Trivigno has etched his name into the UMass record books, becoming just the seventh player in program history to join UMass' 50-goal, 100-point club when he scored his 50th career goal on February 26 at Vermont. He currently holds the school record for career plus-minus (+77), ranks second in career game winning goals (9), fourth in assists (77), tied for fourth in points (130) and fifth in goals (53). His 2021-22 points total (48) is currently sixth all-time, while his 28 assists rank tied for seventh on the school's single-season list.

Trivigno has undoubtedly helped usher in the most successful era in the history of Massachusetts hockey as a member of the winningest class in program history, presently at 94-38-8 (.700) with four-straight seasons of 20 wins or more. He guided UMass to its first National Championship and Hockey East Tournament Championship in 2021-22 as a First-Team All-American, the program's first-ever Walter Brown Award and MVP of the Hockey East Tournament and Most Outstanding Player of the Frozen Four. As a freshman in 2018-19, he was a pivotal piece of the Minutemen's first Hockey East Regular Season Title and NCAA Runner-Up finish with a program-record 31 wins. In his sophomore season, which was cut short due to the COVID 19 pandemic, UMass was in position to earn another NCAA Tournament berth as the team finished eighth in the final Pairwise rankings.

The nation's oldest nationally-recognized college hockey honor, the Walter Brown Award was established in 1953 by the members of the 1933 Massachusetts Rangers, the first American team ever to win the World Championship Tournament. Brown coached the Rangers to the title in Prague, Czechoslovakia, where the team defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime in the championship game. The Walter Brown Award will be presented at the New England Hockey Writers' annual event on Thursday, May 5, at Prince Restaurant in Saugus.