Chicago Blackhawks center Jonathan Toews (19)-Feb6-JM9092
ball player Rachel Cockrell, selected as
CIS player of the year, was second with
104 points.
Other finalists for the Labatt
award were soccer star Desiree Scott,
cyclist Leah Kirchmann, and outstanding Bison hockey rookie Alanna
Sharman.
The Portage Terriers won the RBC
Cup with playoff wins over Melfort and
5-2 over Carleton Place in the national
Junior A tournament final. Earlier, the
team dominated the regular season in
the MJHL with 53 wins, the third highest total in league history.
The Terriers won a close race over
Braden Calvert’s world junior curling
champions for the Winnipeg Free Press
Maurice Smith Memorial Award in
the team category. Portage received 19
first place votes and 154 points, to 13
and 137 points for Calvert.
Other finalists were the WHL
regular season leading Brandon
Wheat Kings, the Manitoba ringette
Canada Games gold medallists, and the
WinMan Wesmen, 18 and under boys
national volleyball champions.
In other presentation features at the
MSSA dinner, the drive to an NHL playoff position by the Winnipeg Jets was
the selection for the 2015 Cactus Jack
Wells Memorial Award for the premier
impact on the provincial sports scene,
and “Dancing Gabe” Langlois received
the Winnipeg Free Press Dallis Beck Memorial Good Guy Award for his promotional efforts in the sports community.
The MSSA also inducted CTV sports
director Shawn Churchill, and former
Chantal Van Landeghem
Winnipeg Sun sports editor Dave Komosky into the Manitoba Media Roll of
Honour for their dedicated service in
sports journalism.
The Jack Matheson Memorial Award,
established to provide financial support to sports media aspirants, honours
the memory of the former Winnipeg
Tribune and CJOB commentator. This
year’s recipient is Danielle Doiron,
a student in the joint Creative Communications program at Red River College
and the University of Winnipeg.
Dennis Beyak, the television play-byplay voice of the Winnipeg Jets, was the
dinner emcee, and the headline guest
was Jets owner Mark Chipman on the
night when Manitoba paid tribute to its
outstanding athletes and teams for the
60th time. l
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