Kent Johnson named League MVP and Most Sportsmanlike while Logan Terness takes home Rookie of the Year award
By Benjamin Phillips
The British Columbia Hockey League announced today the various league award winners from the regular season, with two Trail Smoke Eaters receiving three of the awards.
Kent Johnson –
Along with already claiming the Brett Hull Trophy as the leagues leading scorer with 101 points in 52 games, Johnson has been named the winner of the Vern Dye Memorial Trophy and the leagues Most Valuable Player and the Bob Fenton Trophy as the leagues Most Sportsmanlike player.
Johnson who was named a finalist in each award last week beat out Coquitlam standout goaltender Clay Stevenson and Cowichin defenceman Dimitri Mikrogiannakis for the title of MVP. With 41 goals and 60 assists this season, the 17-year-old from Port Moody, BC lead the league in almost every scoring category, including goals, assists, power play goals and power play assists. Johnson is the first Smoke Eater to win the league MVP since the leage started giving the award to only one recipient. Smoke Eater alumni Brent Baltus won the award in 2013 along side co-winner Mitch Gillam of the Chilliwack Chiefs. Kent joins an illustrious list of previous winners that includes current NHLers Tyson Jost and Kyle Turris along with NHL alumni Brett Hull, Ray Ferraro, Paul Kariya and current Smoke Eaters head coach Jeff Tambellini.
Along with the league MVP award Johnson was also named the recipient of the Bob Fenton Trophy as the leagues Most Sportsmanlike Player. In 52 games, Johnson totaled just 14 penalty minutes while averaging some of the highest time one ice in the league. Johnson joins Kyle Jones, who won the award on 2003 as the only Smoke Eater to win this award.
Logan Terness –
Logan Terness has been named the BCHL’s Rookie of the Year following his stand out performance between the pipes for the Smoke Eaters. With 27 wins in 44 games Terness tied the Smoke Eaters single season wins record this year while being among the top goaltenders in the league. The 17-year-old from Burnaby, BC finished second in games played, third in wins and in save percentage at 0.932. He finished with the fourth best goals against average at 2.36 and finished with the most saves of all goaltenders with more than 1300 shots stopped this season. Terness joins Smoke Eaters alumni Justin St. Louis (2004) and Craig Clare (1998) as Rookie of the Year recipients. Terness is the first Smoke Eaters goaltender to win this award and the first goalie in 20 years, with Sean Fields of the Penticton Panters organization winning it in 1999-2000.
The Trail Smoke Eaters would like to congratulate both Kent and Logan on awards and tremendous season so far.
The Smoke Eaters host the Prince George Spruce Kings this Friday and Saturday for games 1 & 2 of the BCHL Playoffs.
