Benilde-St. Margaret's Boys' Hockey

Benilde-St. Margaret's head coach Ken Pauly was named the John Mariucci Award winner as the Class AA state coach of the year by his peers in the Minnesota Hockey Coaches Association.

He was selected as the Section 6AA coach of the year by section coaches and was honored as the Mariucci Award winner by a vote of the MHCA's coaches at the annual meeting Saturday morning, prior to the Red Knights' Class AA state championship win.

Along with Pauly's awards, BSM assistant coach John Russo was named the Section 6AA assistant coach of the year.

Pauly led the Red Knights to their first Class AA championship after leading them to a third place finish in 2008. BSM also won Class A titles under his leadership in both 1999 and 2001.

In his 19th year running the BSM bench, Pauly has amassed a 331-153-16 record and, in 22 years as a head coach, he is 375-184-23, which includes a 13-2-0 record in five state tournament appearances.

Russo, who has also been behind the bench for both Red Knight appearances in the Class AA tournament, earned his third section assistant coach of the year award.