points per game) – all of them great hockey players.
Now, take into account that Beauchemin’ s and Burmey’ s teams were the last two to reach the playoffs and that they always play against the opposition’ s best checking lines – they have both had tremendous seasons.
Make no mistake, any of the four top scorers in the MMJHL could easily be MVP this season. Faulkner not only scores goals and points, but carries the Jets when it comes to physical play. Rybuck is a leader game in and game out-- a gritty player but also an integral part of the Raiders’ offensive game plan.
And let’ s not forget Nick
Mathews of the Raiders. He’ s the Jonathan Toews of the MMJHL and when players in the league talk about who’ s the best, Beauchemin and Mathews are always at the top of most lists.
The other guys we shouldn’ t leave out include Nico Gravel, who in 43 games has 56 points( 1.30 points per game) and he’ s a defenseman for the third place Transcona Railer Express. And then there is Hawks’ goalie Ryan
Hall. He’ s been the dominant goaltender all year with stats that are eye-popping. In 23 games, has has a record of 18-4-1 and a microscopic goals against average of just 1.51. His save percentage is. 949, so yeah, he’ s a goalie who could be MVP.
And then there is Beauchemin. In his freshman season in the MMJHL in 2015-16, he won the Dave Anderson Memorial Trophy as the league’ s rookie of
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THE LEAGUE LEADER IN POINTS FOR A SECOND STRAIGHT YEAR
” the year. Last year, he was the winner of the 2016-17 Myron Prymak Trophy as MVP and the Steve Claus Memorial Trophy as the MMJHL’ s scoring champion, Beauchemin is a quiet, modest young man who believes any number of players are more worthy than him of the 2017-18 MVP award. Pretty amazing considering that Beauchemin is an undersized 5-foot-11, 160-pound, righthanded shooting forward who is not afraid to go into the dirty parts of the rink.
Riley’ s hockey career started in Ile des Chenes with the Elks. He went on to play Double A with the Ile des Chenes Snipers and finally with the Manitoba Jr. Moose Triple A team. He played summer hockey with the Manitoba Lightning and then played three seasons of MHSAA High School hockey with the Lorette Scorpions. Although disappointed he wasn’ t chosen in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League bantam draft, he has loved every minute of his experience in the MMJHL.
In 124 career regular season games in the MMJHL, Beauchemin has 94 goals and 197 points. Regardless of how the MVP voting goes, he’ ll be the scoring champion and winner of the Claus Memorial Trophy for the second straight year.
And despite the fact that injuries beat up his hockey club this season, Riley Beauchemin can hold his head up. He had a wonderful year. ❍
44 | GAME ON | PLAYOFF EDITION 2018