Michael Benning is a Canadian collegiate

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

defenseman Defence or defense (in American English) in ice hockey is a player position that is primarily responsible for preventing the opposing team from Goal (ice hockey), scoring. They are often referred to as defencemen, D, D-men or blueliners (the la ...

playing for University of Denver Pioneers. He was named as the Tournament Most Outstanding Player in the

2022 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament The 2022 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament was the national championship tournament for men's college ice hockey in the United States scheduled for on April 7–9, 2022. The tournament involved 16 teams in single-elimination play to det ...

Playing career

Benning played junior hockey for his team in the

AMBHL The Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League (AMBHL) is the provincial Bantam AAA ice hockey league for Alberta, Canada. Established in 1990, the AMBHL operates under the jurisdiction of Hockey Alberta and Hockey Canada as an AAA-level minor ice hockey ...

. During his freshman year in

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, he averaged over a point per game and graduated to the Northern Alberta Elite program. After another outstanding offensive season he began playing

Junior A Junior hockey is a level of competitive ice hockey generally for players between 16 and 21 years of age. Junior hockey leagues in the United States and Canada are considered amateur (with some exceptions) and operate within regions of each cou ...

for the

Sherwood Park Crusaders The Sherwood Park Crusaders are a junior A ice hockey team in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL). They play in Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada, with home games at Sherwood Park Arena Sports Centre. History The Edmonton Crusaders joined the ...

in 2018. In his first season with the team, Benning was one of the clubs top scorers and helped them finish second in the league standings. He was named an

alternate captain In ice hockey, the captain is the player designated by a team as the only person authorized to speak with the game officials regarding rule interpretations when the captain is on the ice. At most levels of play each team must designate one captai ...

for the following year and continued to put up big numbers. Benning helped the Crusaders win the regular season title, however, the campaign was ended prematurely due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. By then, however, he had already shown enough promise for the

Florida Panthers The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern ...

to select him in the 4th round of the

NHL draft The NHL Entry Draft (french: Repêchage d'entrée dans la LNH) is an annual meeting in which every franchise of the National Hockey League (NHL) systematically select the rights to available ice hockey players who meet draft eligibility requirem ...

. After graduating, Benning, along with Sherwood Park teammates Reid Irwin and Carter Savoie, travelled south and began attending the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...

. Due in part to a late start and a shortened season, the Pioneers had a poor performance that saw them finish with a losing record for the first time in over 20 years. Despite the difficulties, Denver was still ranked 13th in the preseason poll entering the 2021–22 season. Benning spearheaded the attack from the blueline and helped the Pioneers swiftly rise up the rankings. By the end of the regular season, Denver finished in a tie for the conference title and was guaranteed a NCAA tournament bid. During the postseason, Benning proved to be pivotal in Denver's success, helping the team win three 1-goal games to reach the championship match. With his team down in the third period of the final, Benning assisted on the game-tying goal and then scored what proved to be the deciding marker less than three minutes later. After also assisting on the Pioneers' overtime goal in the national semifinal, he was an obvious choice for the Tournament MOP honors.

Career statistics

Awards and honours

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benning, Michael 2002 births Canadian ice hockey defencemen Ice hockey people from Alberta Living people People from St. Albert, Alberta Sherwood Park Crusaders players Denver Pioneers men's ice hockey players NCAA men's ice hockey national champions