The Houlton-Hodgdon Black Hawks picked up more hardware than any other team at the Eastern Maine Class B awards banquet recently as 14 players received awards.
The First Team features forward Ben Ward and goaltender Malik Abouleish
“Both had outstanding seasons in helping the Black Hawks to a 16-4 season,” said Houlton-Hogdon coach Joel Trickey.
Ward finished the year with 17 goals and 18 assists for 35 points to lead the team in scoring. Abouleish backstopped the team and provided the strong goaltending to win some games that could easily have been losses, said Trickey. He finished with a 3.02 goals against average, which was among the best in the league.
The Second Team saw Kam Lincoln awarded a spot on defense. Lincoln finished the year with five goals and five assists for 10 points and anchored the defense in front of Abouleish.
“He was the primary shooter on the power play and one of the best hitters in the league,” said Trickey.
Third Team honors went to Cody Briggs, who teamed with Ward and Logan Holmes to give the team a productive line that put up 84 points this season. Briggs finished the year with 11 goals and 12 assists.
Holmes and Jordan Brown picked up Honorable mention spots giving the Black Hawks an entire line of all-stars. Holmes had 11 goals and 12 assists and Brown finished with two goals and seven assists.
“Both players provided the team with hard-nosed play every game,” Trickey added.
Due to restrictions on how many players a team can have per team, an entire line of potential all-stars was not named, said Trickey.
“The line of seniors Dylan Gard (17-10-27) and Ian Gervais (11-12-23) flanking sophomore center Parker Sanderson (7-23-30) all deserved to make the team, but could not be named because only one line of players from any team can be awarded all-star positions,” he added.
Named to the All-Rookie team were defensemen Brandon Ward and Jimmy Fitzpatrick.
“Both these players stepped in and gave the Black Hawks solid defensive efforts in their first year as regular players,” said Trickey. “Their play in a very important position was one of the many reasons the team had such a great season.”
Their being named to the team is all the more impressive because only six players in the entire league make the team and Houlton-Hodgdon had two of them.
Senior all-stars will play in a Senior Game later in the year. That game was to have been played at Kennebec Ice Arena, but the roof collapsed and an alternative site has yet to be found. Named to senior all-star team are Ben Ward, Abouleish, Briggs, Lincoln, Holmes and Gard.
“Perhaps the most impressive award presented is the Academic All-star award,” said Trickey.
This is awarded for having an accumulative grade average of 89 or above. The Black Hawks continued their tradition of being one of the top teams in this area by having six players receiving the award this season. The scholar-athletes are; Gard, Gervais, Ben Ward, Abouleish, Sam Fitzpatrick and Jordan Russell.
“Congratulations to all the players on the Black Hawks who received recognition this season,” Trickey said.
