KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- The Western Michigan hockey team hosted its annual banquet to celebrate the 2013-14 season, handing out team awards and naming the captains for the upcoming campaign.

Senior forward Chase Balisy was named the Rob Hodge Most Valuable Player for the first time in his career after helping lead the Broncos to the National Collegiate Hockey Conference Semifinals and to a Great Lakes Invitational Championships. Balisy finished the season second on the team with 37 points on 13 goals and team-high 24 assists. He earned one NCHC Offensive Player of the Week award during the year and was also named to the NCHC Scholar-Athlete team. Balisy had a team-best plus/minus at plus-16 and also earned the Bill Saunders +/- Award.

The Neil Smith Most Valuable Defeseman Award was shared by Jordan Oesterle and Dennis Brown. Brown saw heavy minutes as the most experienced member of the blue line and appeared in all 40 games with 13 points on two goals and 11 assists. Oesterle, who recently signed with the Edmonton Oilers, had 17 points on two goals and 15 assists and was named to the GLI All-Tournament Team.

Freshman Taylor Fleming was named the Suzanne Klop Rookie of the Year. The defeseman was the only rookie to play in all 40 games and recorded seven points on one goal and six assists. His plus-5 plus/minus led all WMU defenseman.

Sophomore goalie Lukas Hafner was named the Ed Edwards Most Improved Player after having a career-best year between the pipes. Hafner made 16 starts and posted a 2.06 goals against average, a .925 save percentage and a 9-6-2 record. Hafner had not made a collegiate start until this season.

Mike Cichy received the Catherine Lawson Sportsmanship Award, while David Killip received the Peter Ellis Academic Award after keeping his cumulative grade point average at 4.0.

Shane Berschbach earned the Vic Vanderberg Scoring Award after leading the Broncos with a career-best 38 points. Berschbach also led the team with 16 goals, another career-best. The Clawson, Mich., native was also given the Kalamazoo Optimist Hockey Association Grinder Award, sharing with with Nolan LaPorte. LaPorte also earned the Blue Line Club's Best Conditioned Athlete Award.

Laporte, Killip, Will Kessel and Sheldon Dries were also named co-captains for the 2014-15 season. Dries becomes the first sophomore captain since Ian Slater. Kessel and Killip both served as assistant captains to Balisy this season.