There might not be as many wins as they wanted but the president of Petrolia Flyers says the 2016-2017 season was a success.
The team which moved from Alvinston to Petrolia last year honoured its players and volunteers Saturday.
“The goal for the season was to make the playoffs and to establish ourselves in Petrolia,” says President Dennis Meston. The Flyers – with only seven wins on the season – made it to the first round to face Lakeshore and won the first two games of the series. “The boys in this room never gave up and I’m proud of every one of you.”
And Meston says the people of Petrolia have been a great support. “We went from attendance of about 100 in Alvinston to about 200 a game here and that’s winning just seven games. When we get this rolling, we’ll have 300 people in the stands like the big guys in the east.”
The team also honoured its top players. Mark McNally of Inwood was named the Roy Caley Most Improved Player, Hunter Bryce of Petrolia was given the Ron Tyler Scholarship; Carter Campbell was named the Owen Oriet Most Valuable Defenceman; Kole Keating was named MVP; Curtis Helps was named Rookie of the Year, Tim Kaldeway was Most Sportsmanlike and Zach VanEyk who played 39 games this year was the Most Dedicated Player.
The Flyers also honoured equipment manager Owen Bray as the volunteer of the year. Meston joked he is so valuable to the team that one day, when the team lost by double digits, Bray was nominated as player of the game by the team.
