NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN - Medicine Hat Cubs forward Mason Fischer celebrates with teammate Spencer Chapman after scoring the overtime winner against the Cochrane Generals in a Heritage Junior Hockey League game on Sunday, Dec. 22, 2019 at the Kinplex. Fischer was named the team's MVP via Twitter Sunday.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
There was no banquet, no emcee, but the Medicine Hat Cubs refused to let COVID-19 prevent them from honouring their best.
The local junior B hockey club spent the past week announcing their annual award recipients over Twitter, with alternate captain Mason Fischer taking home a virtual armful of accolades, including team MVP.
“Obviously we wanted to play our provincial tournament then do things properly with the banquet, but unfortunately we can’t,” said Cubs general manager Dave Kowalchuk. “We still plan on doing something maybe down the road with the actual awards we’re getting made up. We might do still some pictures with the coaching staff.”
Fischer – who had 29 goals and 30 assists in 34 games to finish fourth in the Heritage Junior Hockey League scoring race – closed out the week of announcements with the titles of leading scorer, most goals, the top three stars award and, of course, MVP.
“He’s a great leader and he’s going to have a bright future for himself, whatever he’s going to be doing,” Kowalchuk said of Fischer. “His experience in junior A was especially special for us. We’re trying to turn the team into something a bit closer to a junior A franchise. When you can add guys like Mason Fischer … he’s been in the AJHL, the SJHL and the MJHL. He’s had a lot of different coaches, he’s been through a lot of different experiences and I think it helped last year in the playoffs for us and through the regular season then into the playoffs this year.”
Goaltender Dawsen Savage took second in the three stars award, while also taking home the title of rookie of the year. Chandler Aleman followed up with the third star and Cooper Hilworth earned the playoff MVP title.
Fletcher Aleman was named the team’s best defenceman, while captain Tavin Stadnicki was dubbed most dedicated.
Back-up netminder Logan Leroux earned the outstanding scholastic achievement award for his work off the ice, while graduating forward Mackenzie Fritzler took home the fellowship award.
Noah Irvine earned a nod as the team’s top defensive forward, while rookie Austin Klimosko was named most improved and Brandon Hauck was given the sportsmanship award.
The Cubs had their playoffs cut short in a Game 7 loss to the Cochrane Generals in the Southern Division semifinals. While they still had some hockey in front of them as hosts of the Hockey Alberta Provincial Championship – which was slated to run this past weekend at the Kinplex – that dream was snuffed out by the spread of COVID-19. Thankfully, says Kowalchuk, the team’s returning players might have a shot at retaining host status next season.
“That’s still up in the air,” said Kowalchuk. “Hockey Alberta sent a survey out last week to all the teams that were supposed to host this year, and they asked if we’d be in favour of hosting next year. Certainly, we’d be all for it. It’s disappointing because we felt we had the team that was built for a provincial title this year. We’re going to lose some guys this year, but I’m already busy recruiting.”
