It was a challenging season for the Cranbrook Bucks, dealing with changing guidelines and travel issues, but in their first full season as a team, they made the playoffs.
The Bucks finished the year with a 29-20-2-3 record.
Team captain Rhys Bentham says it was a tight group of guys.
“We had a really great locker room this year, the guys are all great leaders around the room and I got a lot of support and a lot of help from my teammates,” says Bentham
The stand-out player this season was forward Tyson Dyck.
He put up 34 goals and 40 assists for fourth in League Scoring. He’s also nominated for rookie of the year and was named to the All-Rookie Team and First-Team All-Stars.
He attributes much of his success to his fellow linemates Noah Quinn and Luke Pfoh.
“A lot of the year I played with two younger guys in the league,” Dyck says. “We complement each other’s game a lot.”
Another standout player was goaltender Nathan Airey.
He posted a 20-12-5 record and a 2.68 goals-against average.
“I thought I brought a lot of calmness this year to the team,” Airey says.
“In situations when we were a bit scrambly, I thought like I could calm the team down with an easy save and make it look easy.”
The end of the season also means the team’s 20-year-olds will be moving on. This includes Quaid Anderson, Johnny Johnson, Brendan Rogers, Evan Gartner and Liam Hansson.