The announcement on who would win Mr. Hockey was a bit anticlimactic. Mackenzie MacEachern was a shoe-in to win it this year. I was just interested to see if there would be anyone who would object to that certainty. Evidently the answer was no.
The Brother Rice senior forward did in fact walk away with the award at Sunday's state awards banquet. Obviously, he was a member of the state Dream Team, which was also announced. Teammate Chris Wilberding also made the top team.
The other members included forwards Tommy Kivisto of Brighton and Levi Erkkila of Calumet and defenseman Ben Storm, also of Calumet. The top goalie was Blake Wojtala of Trenton.
MacEachern was co-MVP of the MIHL for the second year in a row. He led the league with 90 points in just 29 games. He led the Warriors to their first state title since 2005. He's the first player since Mike Jalaba in 1995 to take home the state's top award.
Wilberding was the leader of Rice's defense, and took advantage of all his ice time with teammates MacEachern and Thomas Ebbing. He had 10 goals and 31 assists and was third (behind those teammates) in the league scoring race.
Past Mr. Hockey award winners
2012 - Mackenzie MacEachern, Brother Rice
2011 - Gerald Mayhew, Wyandotte-Roosevelt and Ben Johnson, Calumet
2010 - Chris Hughes, St. Mary's Catholic Central
2009 - Camden Wojtala, Trenton
2008 - Josh Miller, Trenton
2007 - Andrew Miller - Cranbrook
2006 - Zach Hitch - Brighton
2005 - Chase Langlais, Cranbrook
2004 - Justin Abdelkader, Muskegon Mona Shores
2003 - Andrew Eggert, Catholic Central
2002 - Will Wallace, Cranbrook
2001 - Jared Ross, Catholic Central and John Kim, Cranbrook
2000 - Andy Greene, Trenton
1999 - Keith Rowe, Catholic Central
1998 - Bob Rangus, Calumet
1997 - Scot Curtin, Catholic Central
1996 - Jason Durbin, Trenton
1995 - Mike Jalaba, Brother Rice
1994 - Dale Rominski, Brother Rice