The Brandon Wheat Kings and Winnipeg Wild dominated the all-star teams that were released by the Manitoba AAA Midget Hockey League on Sunday.
The Wheat Kings had five players named to the squads including goaltender Josh Petersen, who named the first-team netminder after going 9-2-0 with three shutouts, a 1.86 goals against average and .931 save percentage in the first half of the season.
Petersen has bounced back from not even playing competitive hockey during the 2013-2014 season, and Brandon coach Tyson Ramsey says it’s a great story of perseverance.
"Josh was forced to play some rec hockey throughout the course of last year but credit to Josh, he did the stuff necessary last year in a bad situation," said Ramsey, "He gots lots of ice time and lots of shots and I know he’s worked on his game mentally over the course of last season and throughout the summer and worked hard throughout the summer months and came into training camp ready to play."
Morgan Geekie of the Yellowhead Chiefs was also named a first-team all-star after scoring 16 goals and 42 points in 26 games to be second in the league scoring race.
Four Wheat Kings were named second-team all-stars in defenceman Jesse Lawrence and forwards Bradley Schoonbaert, Coltyn Bates and Connor Gutenberg.
"I wasn’t sure at the beginning of the year that we would have such an offensive group," added Ramsey, "I think offensively, we’ve been pretty good and a few guys including those three are up their in the standings as far as offensive categories are concerned so we’re really pleased with our offensive game."
Schoonbaert is fourth in league scoring with 40 points, Bates is fifth with 38 points and Gutenberg is tied for 14th with 28 points.
The MMHL is currently on its holiday break, with the regular season resuming on January 2nd.
First-team All-Stars
Goaltender
Josh Petersen, Brandon Wheat Kings
Defence
Tyler Anderson, Winnipeg Wild
Trevor Kavanaugh, Kenora Thistles
Forwards
Jeremy Leipsic, Winnipeg Wild
Brad Goethals, Eastman Selects
Morgan Geekie, Yellowhead Chiefs
Second-team All-Stars
Goaltender
Mitchel Adamyk, Winnipeg Wild
Defence
Max Martin, Winnipeg Wild
Jesse Lawrence, Brandon Wheat Kings
Forwards
Bradley Schoonbaert, Brandon Wheat Kings
Coltyn Bates, Brandon Wheat Kings
Connor Gutenberg, Brandon Wheat Kings
