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Recent Interlake Lightning News

AAA Awards Banquet

By Kaelin Baydock 04/28/2019, 12:30pm CDT

See photos, award winners, and league changes for next year here!

What an amazing year of hockey the 2018-2019 season was! This season saw the Warriors defeat the Monarchs at the Bantam 2 level to win the city championship. The Monarchs won the city championship against the Sharks but be defeated in the provincial finals by the Eastman Selects who had won the rural championship at Bantam 1. Finally the Monarchs narrowly defeated the Sharks to take home the U17 Prep league title. To go along with all of this amazing team success, there were many individual success stories. These individuals were highlighted at the Annual AAA Year end and Awards Banquet at the Canad-Inns Polo Park. See below for a list of all the individual champions:

 

Defenceman of the Year:

Bantam 2- Blake Jones (Monarchs) and Andrew Hladun (Hawks)

Bantam 1- Sam Court (Monarchs)

U17 Prep- Aiden Forrest (Monarchs)

Provincial U18- Matthew Shatsky (Wild)

 

Forward of the Year:

Bantam 2- Jayden Perron (Warriors)

Bantam 1- Michael Cicek (Monarchs)

U17 Prep- Adam Ingram (Hawks)

Provincial U18- Kaden Bryant (Wild)

 

Goalie of the Year:

Bantam 2- Francois Gagnon (Eastman Selects)

Bantam 1- Matthew Kieper (Sharks)

U17 Prep- Ashton Howarth (Sharks)

Provincial U18- Carson Cherepak (Wild)

 

Hardest Working Player

Bantam 2- Hayden Chaloner (Sharks) and Joshua Degagne (Hawks)

Bantam 1- Mathew Renville (Warriors)

U17 Prep- Ty Earl (Wheat Kings)

Provincial U18- Braden Huminuk (Thrashers)

 

Most Valuable Player

Bantam 2- Lucas Hansen (Warriors)

Bantam 1- Matthew Kieper (Sharks)

U17 Prep- Rhonan White (Sharks)

Provincial U18- Reese Belton (Wild)

 

Scholarship Awards

Bruins- Jordan Woods

Thrashers- Andrew Hopko

Wild- Ethan Robson

Impact Player of the Year

Connor Roulette (Thrashers)

 

Coach of the Year

Paul Kruger (Wild)

 

Congratulations to all the award recipients and a job well done to all the nominees and players around the leagues.

 

Other notable new from the awards banquet:

 

The names of the leagues have been changed:

  • Provincial Midget -> U18 Provincial  
  • U17 City Midget -> U17 Prep
  • Bantam 1 -> U15 Bantam
  • Bantam 2 -> U14 Bantam

 

With the U17 league becoming a prep league for the U18 Provincial league, the zones within the U17 leagues will now follow the U18 Provincial boundaries.  This means that there will now only be 3 U17 teams within the city. Each team will have the same name as their corresponding U18 Provincial teams (Wild, Thrashers, Bruins).  

Playoff Brackets

By Kaelin Baydock 03/04/2019, 12:45pm CST

Daily Up dated playoff brackts

Playoff Preview

By AAA Hockey 02/27/2019, 9:30pm CST

With the regular season now over, the playoffs are upon us and here is a quick over view with some early predictions.

Bantam 2

The Bantam 2 playoffs start with the 4th place Eastman Selects playing a mini-series against the 5th place Sharks.  The winner of this series will move on to a best of seven game series against the first place Warriors who have been a dominant force all season.  The other series taking place at the same time will be between the 2nd place Monarchs and the 3rd place Hawks which are separated by only 2 points in the standings.  My prediction is that we will see a final that will feature the Monarchs taking on the Warriors in the final best of seven series with the Warriors being victorious.

 

All games will be taking place at Maples arena.  See the schedule at the bottom for game times.

 

Bantam 1

In the Bantam 1 league, only the teams within city limits are a part of this draw.  The first series sees the Monarchs (2nd place) take on the Hawks (6th place).  The Monarchs will be favourites to win this series.  The second series will include the Hawks (3rd place) and the Sharks (4th place).  There is a 2-point gap between them which will make for a well fought and long series between the two teams.  I believe we will see the Sharks come out victorious and take on the Monarchs in the final best of seven playoff round.  The league champion out of that series, who are predicted to be the Monarchs, will be headed to the Provincial finals to take on the rural champion.

 

All games will be taking place at Maples arena.  See the schedule at the bottom for game times.

 

U17 Prep

The U17 prep playoff schedule sees the first place Monarchs get a bye into the second round with the remaining six teams facing off to see who advances.  The remaining series are set up with the Sharks (2nd place) taking on the Interlake Lighting (7th place), the Hawks (3rd place) against the Warriors (6th place), and the Eastman Selects (4th place) versus the Brandon Wheat Kings (5th place).  The second round of playoffs will most likely see the well-rested Monarchs playing the Wheat Kings, the Sharks taking on the Hawks which will both yield well fought and long battles between the teams.  The league final is expected to see the first place Monarchs take on the second place Sharks in a battle of the two top teams.  With more fire power over the Sharks, the Monarchs look to be the favourites to be the league champions.

 

All games will be taking place at Maples arena.  See the schedule at the bottom for game times.