The Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League celebrates its history through its trophies, which were handed out this week, in conjunction with the playoffs starting.
The Jamie Benn MVP Award and Clayton Stoner Award for top defenceman, both named after NHLers, went respectively to Peninsula Panthers players Riley Braun and Matthew Seale.
But while the Panthers (31-14-6) got the individual glory, the Campbell River Storm took top team honours. The Storm (40-4-2) won the Andy Hebenton Trophy, named after the former NHL Ironman record holder and Victoria pro-hockey great, as regular-season champions.
Braun also won the Doug Morton Trophy as regular-season scoring champion with 120 points to break the VIJHL record formerly held at 118 points by Brody Coulter, who set the record in 2012-13, and is now head coach of the Victoria Cougars of the VIJHL. Coulter congratulated Braun for his feat of establishing the new standard.
“Riley Braun is very good player and is impressive to watch,” said Coulter.
“I’ve held the record for a while. They are made to be broken. It’s good to see someone else take it.”
Logan Speirs of the Panthers finished with a league second-best 103 points in the Peninsula high-octane offence. Braun, Speirs, Seale and their Panthers teammates opened the post-season Tuesday night against the Westshore Wolves at the Panorama Recreation Centre. The second game is tonight at The Q Centre.
The Storm open tonight against the Port Alberni Bombers (19-28-3) tonight at Rod Brind’Amour Arena. The Oceanside Generals (33-14-2) and Comox Valley Glacier Kings (28-20-1) open their series tonight at Oceanside Place in Parksville. The host Victoria Cougars (35-11-3) open against the Kerry Park Islanders on Thursday night at the Archie Browning Recreation Centre.
“It’s going to be a tough series,” said Coulter.
All series are best-of-sevens.
The Lake Cowichan Kraken (19-30-2) and Saanich Predators (16-35-1), whose program produced 2022 Beijing Olympian Adam Cracknell, missed the playoffs. Points percentage was used to determine the seedings due to the uneven number of games played by each team because of game postponements caused by COVID protocols.
