CJHL announces season awards for 2009-2010, Pembroke, Brockville led the hardware parade
Posted Mar 11, 2010 By Jeff Maguire
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Tweet ThisEMC Sports - The Central Junior Hockey League (CJHL) announced its season-ending awards for 2009-2010 last week and not surprisingly players and staff from Brockville Braves and Pembroke Lumber Kings lead the honours.
Lumber Kings, who this week embark on a quest for their fourth straight Art Bogart Cup (CJHL championship), claim four of the awards while Brockville, who nipped Pembroke at the wire for the regular season pennant, pick up two trophies.
Braves' coach, general manager and owner Todd Gill was named 'Coach of the Year'. He led Brockville to a magnificent 52-8-1-1 record this season (106 points). Included was a CJHL record 26-game winning streak.
Braves unprecedented run began last Oct. 30 and concluded with a 2-1 home ice win over Cumberland Grads on Jan. 15. It might have been much longer except for Pembroke's 6-5 shootout victory over Brockville on Sunday, Jan. 17 in Pembroke. After that Braves embarked on a shorter three-game victory run.
Gill and company also successfully applied to host this year's Fred Page Cup Eastern Canadian Junior A championship tournament. It will be staged from April 21-25 at Brockville Memorial Centre.
So no matter how Braves do in the CJHL post season they will fight for a berth in the 2010 Royal Bank Cup (RBC), national Junior A championship tournament, which will be played in Dauphin, Manitoba May 1-9.
The national event, which is being contested for a 40th consecutive year, will be hosted by Dauphin Kings of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League. The forerunner of the RBC trophy was the Manitoba Centennial Cup which was first presented in 1971. Therefore this year's championship is returning to its home province.
The Fred Page event will feature the host Braves along with the CJHL champion, or runner-up if Brockville claims the league crown along with the Maritime and Quebec champions.
Gill, a 45-year-old Brockville native, enjoyed a 19-year career in the National Hockey League (NHL) mainly with Toronto Maple Leafs. The defenceman scored 82 goals and 270 assists in 1,007 career games. Gill played for seven different NHL teams during his long career.
This is his second Coach of the Year award. He also received the honour at the end of the 2006-2007 CJHL campaign.
THOMPSON WINS
Brockville also receives one of this year's CJHL player awards with veteran forward Shayne Thompson picking up the 'Top Graduating Player' trophy. Thompson, a 20-year-old left winger from Stittsville, is in his first full season with Braves after being dealt to Brockville from Kanata Stallions at the junior hockey trade deadline Jan. 10, 2009. He starred for most of two seasons with Stallions.
This has been a stellar campaign for Thompson who helped lead Brockville to the regular season pennant and, no matter how the club does in the playoffs, will have a shot at making it all the way to the Junior A national championship tournament.
The 5' 11", 200 pound Thompson, who is also Braves' captain, scored 33 goals and added 54. His 87 points tied him with Pembroke's Kyle Just, an Arnprior native, for ninth place in the overall CJHL scoring parade.
Thompson is committed to the University of Massachusetts Lowell next year where he will play hockey on a scholarship.
Kanata star forward Allan McPherson was selected 'Most Sportsmanlike Player' in the league this season. He is the only player from a non-playoff team to claim a season award.
McPherson, an 18-year-old centre from Kinburn, had a truly phenomenal campaign playing for a club that finished second last overall, winning just 15 of 62 games. In 56 appearances for Stallions McPherson scored 40 goals and added 63 assists. Both marks are team highs. His 103 points left him in a fourth place tie with Gloucester Rangers' Andrew Creppin on the final CJHL scoring chart.
McPherson passed the 100-point plateau (one of just five CJHL players to surpass that mark) with an eight-point performance during last Tuesday night's (March 2) 11-0 romp over Hawkesbury Hawks, the league cellar dwellers. McPherson netted four goals and added four helpers for the victorious Stallions in their final game of the season.
However the award, which was presented to him during last Tuesday's contest at Kanata Recreation Complex by CJHL Deputy Commissioner Bruce Baskin, was in recognition of his sportsmanlike play. McPherson was assessed just 16 penalty minutes all season despite leading the team in ice time. That is the lowest penalty total of any of the top 10 scorers in the league this season.
"We are very pleased with the award," McPherson's father Bruce told the EMC last Friday. "He's had a great season - we are very proud of him."
The same day (March 5) the younger McPherson agreed to a hockey scholarship arrangement at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York. He will begin playing for the Golden Knights hockey club this fall, one of many CJHL players to choose university hockey in the United States next season. He turned down several other offers from top American schools opting instead for Clarkson in Upstate New York, south of Massena.
Another Kanata native is the 'Top Prospect Award' winner in the league this season.
Michael Borkowski, a 17-year-old left winger led Cumberland Grads in scoring during the 2009-2010 campaign.
A sophomore, Borkowski played all 62 regular season games for the Navan-based team this season, scoring 19 goals and adding 28 assists. He was assessed just 28 minutes in penalties.
TOP MANAGER
Pembroke coach and general manager Sheldon Keefe is the 'Manager of the Year' in the 12-team league for the third straight season.
Keefe has led Lumber Kings to three straight Bogart Cup championships. In 2007 the team won the Fred Page Cup, qualifying for the RBC tournament which was played in Prince George, British Columbia. Pembroke lost 3-2 in overtime in the semi finals to eventual national champion Aurora Tigers, the Ontario Provincial Junior Hockey League titlists.
Going into this season Pembroke had also won three of four regular season flags in the CJHL. Nepean nipped them at the wire to win last season's pennant.
Keefe, a 29-year-old native of Brampton, is a former Ontario Hockey League rookie of the year (1998-99) with Barrie Colts. The right winger also played 124 NHL games for Tampa Bay Lightning in three seasons recording 12 goals and 12 assists.
He joined Lumber Kings as team president in 2003 and after serving as an assistant coach, took on the dual role of coach and GM in June 2006. He is also the majority owner of the hockey club. Besides three straight seasons as League Manager of the Year he was also named Coach of the Year in 2008.
The 'Best Defenceman' in the league this year is Pembroke blueliner and team captain Ben Reinhardt, a native of Arnprior.
Reinhardt, who turns 20 later this month, is in his third season with the defending league champions. He is known as "a stay at home defenceman" who provides steady leadership for the hockey club.
On offence he scored six goals and added 13 assists in 53 games for the Pembroke team who are now gunning for their fourth straight league title.
Reinhardt's teammate Damian Cross is the winner of the 'Outstanding Player' award. Cross, a 20-year-old right winger, was the runaway scoring leader in his first full season with Lumber Kings. The Nepean native was traded to Pembroke by Cornwall Colts at last year's junior hockey trade deadline (January 2009) in exchange for high scoring Jacob Laliberte who won the goal scoring title in the league this season.
Cross played in all 62 games scoring 53 goals and contributing 87 assists to finish with an even 140 points. He is expected to pace Pembroke's offence in the playoffs which begin this week.
The fourth trophy for Pembroke this season goes to Matthew Peca who was selected 'Rookie of the Year'. Peca, a 16-year-old native of Petawawa, had an outstanding inaugural campaign in the league. He finished fourth on the team scoring chart with 21 goals and 26 assists in 60 games.
This year's 'Best Goaltender' award goes to Doug Carr of Cornwall Colts. Carr, a 20-year-old from Hanover, Massachusetts is in his third season with the hockey club.
He backstopped Cornwall to the third best record in the league. In 38 appearances for Colts he compiled an impressive 27-9 record and finished with the third best statistics among league goaltenders. His goals against average was a solid 2.50.
The 'Scholastic Player of the Year' in the CJHL is veteran forward Andrew Calof of Nepean Raiders. The 18-year-old centre from Ottawa led Raiders in scoring this season with 45 goals and 53 assists in 57. He finished tied with Shayne Stockton of Brockville for sixth place in the league scoring derby with 98 points.
Calof, who is completing his third season with the Nepean club, moves to prestigious Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts this fall, underlining his status as scholastic player of the year. He will continue to play hockey as a member of the famed Harvard Crimson, eight time winners of the East Coast Athletic Conference hockey title in Division 1 of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
All of the league's annual awards are voted on by the 12 CJHL general managers.
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