The Prince George Spruce Kings celebrated success at their sixth annual Team Awards Banquet recognizing the efforts made on and off the ice by the players, coaches, and volunteers.
Over 200 people packed the Cranbrook Room at the Ramada Hotel Friday night where the Spruce Kings named sophomore forward Dustin Manz as their MVP for the regular season.
The 19-year-old from Vanderbilt, Michigan is fourth in BCHL scoring with 29 goals and 35 assists while playing on the top line with ultra-prolific forward Ben Brar and Patrick Cozzi.
In an interview with My PG Now, Manz said he was humbled to be given such an honor.
“It means a lot that they thought I was deserving of this award and have had that good of a year, it gives me a little confidence going into the rest of the year and the playoffs for our team – hopefully, we can continue to do as well as we’ve been doing.”
The Lake Superior State commit will be heading to the NCAA ranks next season.
Manz admits he tackled the gym pretty hard over the offseason to get himself in peak condition for the season and believes it has played a major part in his success.
“I worked a lot on my off-ice training I took it really seriously this summer really wanting to get better, help the team out and I guess this year I have been on the ice a little more working on certain areas like my scoring and that’s kind of helped me throughout the year.”
In his Maiden BCHL voyage, Manz recorded 43 points in the 2017-18 regular season also collecting 13 points in the Fred Page Cup playoffs helping the Spruce Kings advance to the finals for the first time in franchise history since joining the league only to be bounced in five games by the Wenatchee Wild.
The Spruce Kings are five points back of the Chilliwack Chiefs for the Mainland Division lead.
Chilliwack plays at home tonight against Nanaimo before hosting Prince George on Sunday at 2pm.
As for the rest of the team, the remainder of the team awards look like this:
Fan Favourite Award – Ben Brar
Outstanding Community Service Award – Jay Keranen
Scholastic Award – Layton Ahac, Jason Chu, Nick Bochen, Nick Poisson
Most Dedicated Player – Logan Neaton, Dylan Anhorn.
Most Improved Player- Nick Poisson, Max Coyle
Rookie of the Year – Nick Bochen
Most Inspirational Player – Ben Poisson, Ben Brar
7th Player Award – Patrick Cozzi, Nolan Walsh
Fitness Award – Dustin Manz, Jay Keranen
Best Defenseman – Layton Ahac, Liam Watson-Brawn
Graduating Players – Ben Brar, Max Coyle, Jay Keranen, Patrick Cozzi