The Sicamous Eagles made their mark on the KIJHL divisional awards despite the Princeton Posse and Merritt Centennials making a near sweep of the titles.
In a Feb. 24 media release, the league announced the top players and staff in the Bill Ohlhausen Division for the 2024/25 regular season, in which the Eagles ended in fourth place with (22-16-6-0) and 11th overall.
Named Top Goaltender, rookie Kael Svenson snagged one of the eight awards after delivering an impressive performance in net. The Calgary native joined the Eagles on Nov. 13 in a trade with the Alberta Junior Hockey League, and started his KIJHL career with six straight wins.
"Not only did he display tremendous tremendous athletic ability, but he made crucial saves when his team needed him," the release said.
His previous honours include being named Top Goalie in the 3 Stars of the Week on Nov. 30, as well as earning a Young Guns selection.
"He made a lot of big saves, but also a lot of really timely saves," former head coach Liam McOnie said in an earlier media release of Svenson's play that week. "He kept a level head and made a lot of calm saves."
Svenson ended the season with a 15-4-2 record, with a 2.40 goals-against average and league-best .941 save percentage. He allowed 49 goals and made 786 saves.
Other division winners include:
• Most Valuable Player – Tyson Horiachka, Princeton Posse
• Top Scorer – Matthew Langdon, Princeton Posse
• Top Defenceman – Grady Sterling-Ponech, Princeton Posse
• Rookie of the Year – Sam Giangualano, Merritt Centennials
• Most Sportsmanlike Player – Scott Dyck, Osoyoos Coyotes
• Coach of the Year – Wes McLeod, Merritt Centennials
• General Manager of the Year – Brad Anstey, Merritt Centennials, as the first winner of the new award in honour of the late Wayne March, Eagles franchise co-founder and longtime GM.
