Game On Magazine 2017 Nov Game On low res | Page 10

GR EE N B L A D E L A W N CA R E JUNI OR PLAYE R O F TH E MON TH
ASHTON
22 A N D E R S O N
HEIGHT 5’10 | WEIGHT 170 | AGE 20
GOALS 18 | ASSISTS 46 | POINTS 64
SPEEDY ANDERSON LEADS
NEEPAWA’S RETURN TO THE TOP
He was the No. 1 selection
(No. 1 overall) by the Neepawa
Natives in the 2012 Manitoba
Junior Hockey League entry draft.
8
Anderson scored eight goals
inhisfirstei ht ameswith
Neepawa in this, his fourth full
season in the NHL.
30
Had 15 goals and 30 points
in 42 games with the Manitoba
Triple A Midget Yellowhead Chiefs
in 2013-14.
From Rivers, Manitoba
1 0 | G AM E ON | N OVEM BER 2017
Since 2014, he has been one of the fastest, most
skilled players in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League
and last year, Ashton Anderson came into his own with
18 goals and 64 points in 59 games last season.
Now, four years later, he’s one of his team’s leaders
at a time when the long-suffering Natives have
started to play great hockey. Last year, the Natives
reached the playoffs after six straight seasons of
post-season drought. The team had been in a funk
since a terrible hazing incident in 2011. However,
under the direction of general manager Myles Cathcart
and head coach Dustin Howden, the Natives have
returned to the top of the league and Neepawa now
has one of the best organizations in junior hockey.
Anderson, 20, a former member of Manitoba’s
National Aboriginal Hockey Championship tournament
provincial team, has been a big part of the team’s
return to the top. He is entering his fourth full season
with the Natives and this year, he got off to a great
startwithei ht oalsinhisfirstei ht ames.
He’s also one of the best players to have come
out of tiny Rivers, Man., in recent years.
“I started to skate when I was four-years-old at
my home in Rivers,” said Anderson, whose dad’s
family hails from one of the original Metis settlements
in Kinosota, Man. “I played all my minor hockey in
the community centre in Rivers and then went on
to play provincial bantam in Shoal Lake with the
Yellowhead Chiefs and midget with Yellowhead.”
At the start of this season, Anderson was
the team’s leading scorer, was in the Top 10 in
scoring in the MJHL and he’d helped the team
het off to a 5-2-1 start. He’s the real deal and the
Green Blade Lawn Care Player of the Month.
BY SCOTT TAYLOR
Photo by Laurie Anderson