CJHL All-Star teams feature several area players
Posted Mar 12, 2010 By Jeff Maguire
Email
Print
Tweet ThisEMC Sports - With the regular season ending and the playoffs kicking off, the Central Junior Hockey League (CJHL) announced its All-Star teams for the 2009-2010 campaign last Wednesday (March 3) and a number of area players are included among the league's best.
Predictably, most of the players and bench staff named to the first all star squad are also among those selected by the 12 league general managers in the season-ending CJHL Awards announced the previous day (see separate story for details including individual statistics).
Brockville Braves, Pembroke Lumber Kings and Cornwall Colts, the top three finishers during the long campaign dominate the three elite squads named last week.
First team all stars include goalie Doug Carr of Cornwall along with defencemen Ben Reinhardt of Pembroke and Zach Carriveau from Nepean Raiders. The centre is Colts' scoring ace Jacob Laliberte, with league scoring leader Damian Cross of Pembroke on right wing and Shayne Thompson of Brockville on the left wing.
The first team coach is Brockville bench boss Todd Gill while Sheldon Keefe, the Pembroke coach and general manager, was named manager of the dream team. Both are former National Hockey League players and repeat winners in both the CJHL post season awards and all star voting.
Carr, a Massachusetts native, Reinhardt who hails from Arnprior, Cross who is from Nepean and Thompson, a Stittsville native, all won individual awards. So did Gill and Keefe, the coach and manager of the first team. Carr, Cross and Thompson are all 20-year-olds while Reinhardt turns 20 later this month. Reinhardt and Thompson captain their respective clubs.
Laliberte, a 19-year-old from Rockland (he's also Colts' captain), was the league's top goal scorer with 62 in just 50 games. He also added 48 assists and his 110 total points earned him third place in the CJHL scoring derby.
Carriveau, a 19-year-old from Maine anchors the Nepean blueline. He also contributed nine goals and 25 assists in 56 appearances for the club to finish ninth on Raiders' scoring list.
Second team
The second all star team is backstopped by goalie Niels-Erik Ravn of Ottawa Junior Senators while the defencemen are Sean Blunden of Gloucester Rangers and Sebastien Gingras of Brockville. Braves' star Shayne Stockton is the centre with teammate Mark Williamson on the right side and Mathieu Ouellette of Cornwall patrolling the left wing.
Ravn, a 20-year-old native of Aix-En, Provence, France is completing a third successful season as Junior Sens' top puck stopper. He finished fourth in the league in goals against average (GAA) with a 2.74 mark and is one of just five net minders to appear in more than 40 games during the just concluded campaign.
Blunden, 19, had the most goals of any league blueliner with 18. He and Chris Mason of Cornwall were the second highest scoring defencemen in the CJHL this season with 54 points apiece. Blunden helped Rangers to a fourth place finish overall and home ice advantage in the quarter final playoffs against Ottawa Junior Senators. The 19-year-old defenceman lives in Ottawa and is completing his third season with Gloucester.
Gingras, who turns 19 this week, had the second highest points total among league defenceman with 55 including 43 assists. The Pierrefonds, Quebec native is in his first season with Brockville.
Teammates Stockton and Williamson, who are both from the United States, finished first and third respectively in team scoring for Brockville and they were sixth and 11th respectively in the league scoring derby. Stockton collected 98 points, including a team high 37 goals, while Williamson had 82 points including 54 assists.
Stockton, 20, hails from Rochester, New York while Williamson, also 20, is from Centennial Colorado. Both are completing their third campaigns with Braves.
Keefe and Gill were named coach and manager respectively of the second all star squad.
Third team
The goalie for the third team is Kemptville 73's fine net minder Ben Curley with Cornwall's Mason and veteran Dustin Darou of Smiths Falls Bears on the blueline. The centre is Nepean scoring leader Andrew Calof (he also won an individual award), with Andrew Newell of Junior Sens the right winger and Scott Arnold of Brockville on the left side.
Curley led Kemptville to the club's first playoff berth in three seasons in the CJHL. The 19-year-old from Dunrobin in the West Carleton section of Ottawa appeared in more games (a total of 50) than any league net minder. The second year goalie finished the campaign with a GAA of 2.98, the sixth best figure in the league and his record was 25-19 with six shootout losses and two shut outs.
Mason, a 20-year-old from Montrovia, California, is in his first full season with Cornwall. As mentioned he tied for second in scoring among league defencemen.
Darou, 18, from nearby Perth, just completed his third season patrolling the blueline for Smiths Falls. The Bears did not make the playoffs, finishing 10th overall in the 12-team league. But Darou is a genuine team leader (he's an alternate captain) and he finished second in the team scoring parade with nine goals and 23 assists in 51 games.
Nepean forward Calof will attend Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts this fall. The speedy centre led Raiders in scoring, during a difficult campaign for the hockey club, finishing tied for sixth place in the overall league standings with 98 points including 45 goals which is the third best total in the CJHL this season. The 18-year-old from Ottawa is now leading the club in the quarter final playoffs against Cornwall.
Newell, a 20-year-old from Navan, was the fourth leading scorer for Ottawa Junior Senators in his first full season with the team. He finished the regular season with 26 goals 37 assists in 55 games.
Arnold, who has now completed three seasons for Brockville, finished fourth in scoring on a team which featured a very balanced offence with eight players scoring more than 50 points. The 20-year-old native of Point Claire, Quebec (a Montreal suburb) has scored 40 points or more in each of his three seasons in the Seaway City. This year he hit a career high with 75 including a team high 42 goals.
Also honoured in the all star balloting were third team coach Chris Droeske of Kemptville 73's. He guided the second half surge which saw 73's overtake and pass expansion Carleton Place Canadians to claim the eighth and final playoff position.
Third team manager is Cornwall's Al MacInnis who put together the potent Colts' team which finished a strong third overall after leading the Robinson Division and league standings early in the campaign. Cornwall, with Laliberte and late season acquisition Ouellette leading the offence, could be a dark horse in the post season which begins this week.
The opening round playoff match-ups have first place Brockville taking on eighth place Kemptville, second place Pembroke against seventh place Cumberland, third place Cornwall tangling with sixth place Nepean and fourth place Gloucester battling cross town rival Ottawa who finished fifth overall.
For complete information on the Junior A league visit the website: www.centraljuniorhockeyleague.ca
blog comments powered by Disqus
