Over the last two weeks, fans have voted in the 2022-23 NCHC Play of the Year Tournament, and for the second straight season, the winning play comes from Colorado College. CC junior forward Hunter McKown's goal from week 11, the tournament's No. 1 seed, was revealed as the 2022-23 NCHC Play of the Year, as selected by fans. This marks the eighth time in 10 seasons/tournaments that a goal has been selected Play of the Year, but the first time since 2020, as McKown's teammate, goaltender Matt Vernon, earned the 2021-22 Play of the Year last season (and North Dakota goalie Adam Scheel the year before).
In this season's NCHC Play of the Year, McKown steals the puck from Omaha inside the blue line and goes between his legs for a highlight-reel, unassisted goal on Dec. 9, 2022 in front of the home crowd at Ed Robson Arena in Colorado Springs.
McKown won the final match-up in the Play of the Year Tournament over Miami freshman forward Max Dukovac (the tournament's No. 14 seed), earning 64 percent of the vote to Dukovac's 36. The championship match-up saw more than 4,300 votes cast with McKown receiving 2,776 to Dukovac's 1,576.
Previous winners for NCHC Play of the Year include (the year links to story/video):
2014 - Drake Caggiula, F, UND
2015 - Justin Kovacs, F, WMU
2016 - Nick Schmaltz, F, UND
2017 - Tyson Jost, F, UND
2018 - Ryan Poehling, F, SCSU
2019 - Sam Hentges, F, SCSU
2020 - Jordan Kawaguchi, F, UND
2021 - Adam Scheel, G, UND
2022 - Matt Vernon, G, CC
Video of McKown's winning goal is below, while the entire bracket can be seen at the bottom of the page.
--#NCHChockey--