The Manitoba Junior Hockey League is going to be handing out some hardware during the final week of the regular season and possible into the start of the playoffs.
There are some outstanding nominees for the various awards the MJHL hands out at the end of each season.
They did away with a year end banquet, and instead now present the awards to the players (and coaches) in front of their fans.
First up, who is this year’s MVP? They will take home the Steve “Boomer” Hawrysh award. Nominees include David Aime from the OCN Blizzard, Steven Shamanski from the Dauphin Kings and Taylor Dickin from the Selkirk Steelers.
Aime might seem like an odd choice given the Blizzard are not likely to make the playoffs this year, but anyone who watched the Blizzard this year know he basically carried them on his back with his stellar netminding.
The top defenceman in the MJHL will capture the Brian Kozak trophy. Shamanski is also nominated for this award. Joining him are Dale Warkentin from the OCN Blizzard and Zach Tully from the Portage Terriers.
The Vince Leah trophy is handed out to the top rookie in the MJHL each year. This year the race is between Cole Brunet of the Portage Terriers, Brendan O’Donnell of the Winnipeg South Blues and Eric Coulombe of the Steinbach Pistons. While it’s great to see the Pistons franchise represented here, O’Donnell is the likely winner in this category.
The player deemed to show the most hockey ability and sportsmanship is presented the Lorne “Windy” Lyndon trophy. Players up for this award include Shane Luke from the Dauphin Kings, Chris Reimer from the Swan Valley Stampeders, and Blake Chartier from the Winnipeg Saints.
If Aime doesn’t win the MVP title, maybe he’ll win the top goaltender trophy. He’s up against Peter Alexander from the Winkler Flyers and Joey Rewucki from the Selkirk Steelers.
The final trophy to be handed out in the next couple of weeks is the coach of the year honour.
Either Ryan Smith from the Selkirk Steelers, Dwayne Kirkup from the Swan Valley Stampeders or Rich Gosselin from the Steinbach Pistons will win the “Muzz McPherson” award.
Then again, maybe none of them want it. Last year’s winner – Doug Hedley – was not brought back as head coach of the OCN Blizzard.
• Dauphin Kings forward Shane Luke is the Potters Distillers Player of the Week.
The 19 year old had eight points in two games, including six against the Swan Valley Stampeders in a 9-3 victory.
Also considered for this award was Shael Hechter of Winkler Flyers and Jason Kasdorf of Portage Terriers.
The 20-year-old Hechter had three goals and seven points last week, while Kasdorf, 17, went 2-0 while posting a 1.50 GAA and .944 save percentage. He also shut out the Swan Valley Stampeders.
• Speaking of that shutout, that win pretty much sealed second place for the Terriers in the Sher-Wood Division. Regardless of where it starts, the two teams will clash in the opening round of the playoffs this year. Portage has never lost to Swan Valley in a seven-game series before. Each team picked up four wins against each other this season – three of which went to a shootout. Portage is ending the season on a real hot streak, but the Stampeders know a little bit about that as well. In the 2005-06 season the Stampeders won 11 straight games down the stretch. It didn’t matter when the playoffs started – they lost in five games.
The other Sher-Wood series pits the Dauphin Kings against the Neepawa Natives. Neepawa finally earned a win against the Kings last week, but they will be hard-pressed to win four times in the playoffs against the RBC hosts. Dauphin might be more interested in escaping the opening round with as few bumps and bruises as possible.
In the other division the Winnipeg Saints came alive in February, blew past the Selkirk Steelers and claimed top spot in the division. As I write this column with a week to play, it looks as though the Saints will likely face the Winnipeg South Blues, who have all but clinched the final spot away from the OCN Blizzard, and are a bit too far away from Winkler for a realistic charge at third. An all-Winnipeg matchup probably suits the Saints just fine, as they (and their pocket book) were not likely too enthralled with the prospects of travelling to OCN for an opening-round playoff series.
The other series will see the Steelers host the Winkler Flyers. The strongest rural teams in the Addison will battle for a right to take on Winnipeg’s best team in the Addison Division final.
I’ll have my playoff predictions in next week’s column.