The Atlantic Hockey Association (AHA) and its coaches have chosen the All-Rookie Team for the 2012-13 regular season. All student-athletes were nominated by their own coaches and voted on by the remaining 11 coaches. Three of the five members of the AHA All-Rookie Team are alumni of the NAHL and who were playing in the NAHL at this time last season.
Those NAHL alumni honored included Karl Beckman (Holy Cross/Amarillo), Matt Blomquist (Bentley/Coulee Region Chill) and Joe Kozlak (Army/Amarillo Bulls).
Beckman (Okemos, Michigan) has four goals and 12 assists for 16 points this season he was named the Atlantic Hockey Rookie of the Month for February as his eight assists led the team for the month. Beckman was named the Atlantic Hockey Rookie of the Week on March 4 as the Crusaders went 3-0-0 on the week. Additionally, Beckman was named the Atlantic Hockey Rookie of the Week on Feb. 4. Beckman has four goals and eight assists for 12 points over the last nine games.
Blomquist (Blaine, Minnesota) earned All-Rookie honors despite missing the final eight games of the regular season with an injury. He finished with a 3-14-17 scoring line in 27 games and was +5 on the season. In the conference he ranks tied for third in rookie scoring and tied for ninth in defenseman scoring. Blomquist was also named the Atlantic Hockey Rookie of the Month for November.
Kozlak, from (Duluth, Minnesota) was among the scoring leaders for the Black Knights this season and earned his spot on the All-Rookie Team after scoring seven goals and handing out 10 assists. Kozlak was one of seven players who competed in all 34 games for Army. He scored two game-winning goals and once on the power play while registering a pair of multiple-point games. Kozlak collected assists in two of his first three games and then posted the first multiple-point game of his career with a goal and assist against Sacred Heart. He posted assists in contests against Maine, Sacred Heart, AIC, RIT, Bentley, Connecticut and Holy Cross.
The Atlantic Hockey Association arose when nine institutions joined together on June 30, 2003, to form a new Division-I men’s ice hockey conference. The league currently consists of twelve members: Air Force Academy, American International College, Army, Bentley University, Canisius College, the University of Connecticut, the College of the Holy Cross, Mercyhurst University, Niagara University, Robert Morris University, Rochester Institute of Technology and Sacred Heart University.
