Staff
The Fort Frances Lakers are 3-for-4 in the awards department, with more likely on the way.
Fort captain Dylan Robertson was named the SIJHL’s top defensive forward for this season this past Tuesday, while fellow forward Andrew Willner was saluted as the league’s most sportsmanlike player.
Robertson was picked over Eric Madison of the Minnesota Iron Rangers and Kenny Turner of the Thunder Bay North Stars.
The 20-year-old from Atlanta won the scoring title this year with 88 points, but also shone when it came to shutting down the top offensive threats on the other team.
He had two of the Fort’s league-leading 14 shorthanded goals in helping the Lakers rank No. 2 in penalty killing this year at 80.5 percent.
Robertson is the fifth player from a Fort Frances-based team to win the award, with Wyatt Cota being the most recent one when he shared the awarded with Thunder Bay’s Kris Kellaway last year.
Willner, who was fourth in league scoring with 58 points, ended up with just 10 penalty minutes in 52 games this season.
The 20-year-old from New Brighton, Mn., got the nod ahead of Turner (14 PIM) and Minnesota goalie Kyle Carignan, who didn’t take a single penalty in his 24 appearances this season.
It’s the fourth time a Fort Frances player has been given the award, the last one being Jacob Nolan during the 2012-13 campaign.
Yesterday, the Fort were unable to keep its streak going in another category.
Defenceman Roshen Jaswal was looking to make it four straight years that a Laker had been selected as the SIJHL’s most improved player.
But Turner ended that run by claiming the award, one of his league-high three nominations this year, over Jaswal and defenceman Tristyn Sabina of Minnesota.
Jaswal, a 20-year-old from Burnaby, B.C., joined the team for his second tour of duty on Nov. 27 after getting only four point in 20 regular-season games last year.
The blueliner caught fire early on this time around and wound up with 26 points in 25 games as he attempted to follow in the award-winning footsteps of Miles Nolan last year, Mason Meyer in 2013-14 and Colton Spicer in 2012-13.
But Turner had a terrific turnaround of his own, doubling his output from 21 points in 52 games last year to 42 points in 46 games this season.
Today, the Lakers regained their hold on the hardware as forward Cole Tymkin was named CCM Hockey rookie of the year.
The Fort Frances native played the entire regular season as a 16-year-old and was the top rookie point producer with 15 goals and 33 assists for 48 points in 49 games.
Tymkin bested Thunder Bay forward Brad Thrower and English River Miners forward Nash Dabb to win the honor.
More awards will be announced in the upcoming weeks, with the Lakers fielding one nominee in all eight awards categories this year.
