NEWS

The Ontario Junior Hockey League’s 2015-16 regular season officially wrapped up this weekend with its first award winners being announced.

OJHL Regular Season Champion – Trenton Golden Hawks

OJHL Top Scorer – Luc Brown, Wellington Dukes (pictured left - photo credit: Brian Watts/OJHL Images)

OJHL Top Goaltender – Daniel Urbani, Trenton Golden Hawks (pictured right - photo credit: Andy Corneau/OJHL Images)

The Georgetown Raiders, Markham Royals, Oakville Blades and Trenton Golden Hawks were champions of their respective divisions, while the Trenton Golden Hawks brought home the regular season crown for the second time in franchise history and the second time in four seasons.  

Dominating play for much of the season, the Hawks reeled off 16 consecutive victories to kick-off the season and never looked back, climbing to the number one ranking in the entire CJHL, while closing out the season as the fourth ranked seed in the country.  This also marked the Golden Hawks fourth East Division crown in the past five seasons with a 44-6-4 record for 92 points to clinch the number one seed throughout the duration of the OJHL post-season.   Trenton enters the OJHL record book tied for the fifth most wins (44) in league history with the 2007 and 2015 Aurora Tigers, while also tying for the sixth most points (92) with the 1976 Guelph Holody Platers.

Runner-up Georgetown, who captured the regular season title four years ago, clinched their seventh Division title in OJHL franchise history and it was the second consecutive year they topped both the South-West Conference and West Division standings on the strength of a 37-13-4 record for a .722 winning percentage.  Finishing as runner-up in the South-West Conference standings was the Oakville Blades, who captured their first Division title since 2007-08, leading the South Division with a .657 winning percentage.  Finally, the tightest divisional race was the North Division as it came down to the second last night of the season before the OJHL's newest club, the Markham Royals, captured the title on a strength of a 31-17-6 record for 68 points.  This marked the franchise's first division victory since the Hamilton Kilty Bees claimed the West Division in 1993-94.

After recording 85 points in his first three seasons in the OJHL, Luc Brown of the Wellington Dukes more than doubled his career point total in taking home the league scoring title, registering 91 points in 51 regular season games played.  Brown becomes the first member of the Dukes to capture the league scoring title and the franchise's top single season scorer since Chris Auger notched 92 points in 2005-06.  He was also the OJHL goal scoring champion, recording 42 goals this season, becoming the first Duke to lead the league in goal scoring since Darcy Murphy buried 52 goals in 2011-12.  Zach Evancho of the Buffalo Jr. Sabres was the runner-up to Brown in the OJHL scoring race, recording 80 points in 52 games played.  Anthony Rinaldi of the Kingston Voyageurs and Thomas Beretta of the St. Michael's Buzzers tied as runner-up for top goal scorer with 38 goals each.

From the back-end, Oakville Blades defenceman Patrick Kudla dominated his position throughout the regular season, leading all blueliners with 53 assists and 66 points, which ranked him first and seventh overall in the league scoring race.  Kudla's 53 assists is the 10th best total in OJHL history among rearguards, while his 66 points were 14th best ever.  Both totals are the highest offensive numbers by a defenceman since Justin Baker of the Streetsville Derbys posted 60 assists in 2008-09 and 80 points in 2009-10.  Brennan Roy of the Cobourg Cougars was runner-up to Kudla in scoring with 53 points, while leading all defenceman with 20 goals on the season; tied for the ninth highest total in league history and also the best output since Justin Baker notched 24 goals in 2009-10.

Veteran netminder Daniel Urbani helped lead the Trenton Golden Hawks to the OJHL regular season title, playing in 40 games while leading all goalies with 34 victories, 5 shutouts and an astounding 1.69 goals against average.  The Top Goaltender Award is presented annually to the goaltender that leads the OJHL with the lowest goals against average.  Urbani joins the OJHL record book with the fourth best goals against average in league history, behind the record setting 1.40 by Dayne Davis of the Wellington Dukes in 2002-03, He is also the first member of the Golden Hawks to win the award.  Andrew Masters of the Georgetown Raiders was runner-up to Urbani, posting a 2.00 goals against average on the season.  Other league leaders include David Richer of the Kingston Voyageurs tying Urbani for the shutout lead with five, Masters posting a league-best .934 save percentage and Marcus Semiao of the Markham Royals playing a league-high 2,633:42 this season..

The 2015-16 OJHL playoffs begin on Wednesday, March 2, 2016 and the Conference Quarter-Final match-ups are as follows:

North-East Conference:        
(1) Trenton        vs.    (8) Newmarket
(2) Markham        vs.     (7) Whitby
(3) Kingston         vs.     (6) Cobourg
(4) Wellington    vs.    (5) Aurora

South-East Conference:        
(1) Georgetown    vs.    (8) Orangeville
(2) Oakville        vs.    (7) St. Michael's
(3) Burlington    vs.    (6) Toronto
(4) Buffalo        vs.    (5) North York

Follow all the OJHL playoff action at www.ojhl.ca or watch it all on FASTHockey, www.ojhl.fasthockey.com.