Hurricanes hand out hardware
By Woodard, Dale on April 13, 2020.
Lethbridge Herald
The Lethbridge Hurricanes have begun handing out their year-end awards.
With the COVID-19 pandemic causing the cancellation of the rest of the Western Hockey League season, the Canes began announcing its winners via their Twitter page starting Friday.
Kicking off the awards is co-captain and leading scorer Dylan Cozens with a pair of awards as the Buffalo Sabres prospect gets the nod for the Canadian Tire South Top Scorer Award and the 106.7 ROCK Three Star Award.
For his work away from the rink, Hurricanes forward Dino Kambeitz has been selected as this year’s Herman Elfring Community Relations Award.
When he wasn’t overseas with teammate Calen Addison helping Team Canada to the World Junior Championship gold medal, Cozens finished the regular season 38 goals and 85 points – both with career highs – in 51 games.
The product of Whitehorse, Yukon finished the season with 25 power play points on eight goals and 17 assists along with a team-high six game-winning goals and four shorthanded goals.
Cozens finished tied for fifth in the WHL in goals, was seventh in WHL points and finished atop the WHL in shorthanded goals.
In his WHL career, the forward the Hurricanes drafted in the first round and 19th overall in the 2016 WHL Bantam draft played in 179 regular season games with the team, totaling 95 goals and 223 points along with 88 penalty minutes and a plus-49 rating.
Cozens is 17th all-time in Hurricanes franchise goals, 19th all-time in franchise assists (128) and is 18th all-time in franchise points.
He was named a game star a total of 20 times, including being named the first star on seven occasions along with being named a second star seven times and a third star six times.
In the 20 games that Cozens was named a star, the Hurricanes won 14 times, including six of the seven times that he was named the first star.
Acquired by the Hurricanes from the Victoria Royals last summer, Kambeitz is this year’s recipient of the Herman Elfring Community Relations Award, given to the Hurricane that best represents the team in the community.
With extended family in Lethbridge, Kambeitz embraced the Lethbridge community as his own, always at the forefront for community engagements and always the first to sign up for community events.
He visited numerous schools to read with students, run class activities with students, share his hockey experience, talk about bullying, concussion awareness, and the importance of education.
Kambeitz also joined fans at the Lethbridge Therapeutic Riding Association’s Ride into Christmas event, went bowling with the Hockey Hounds, delivered teddy bears to children at the Chinook Regional Hospital and also baked goods for those taking part in the Care from the Heart Radiothon for CRH.
He also arranged for himself and some teammates to attend two ringette practices to learn the game and help coaches run the drills. In addition, Kambeitz attended various minor hockey practices, joined fans at the Copperwood Street Hockey event, took part in the AMA skate for school safety patrollers and helped serve breakfast at the Lethbridge Soup Kitchen.
This season, Kambeitz scored 16 goals and 29 points and was plus-six in 52 games, serving as one of the Hurricanes alternate captains.
The Hurricanes commit hundreds of hours annually within the community, connecting with thousands of children, hockey players, fans, community organizations, and community members.
Late last week, the Hurricanes won the WHL Business Award for the Eastern Conference for the second year in a row.
This year’s WHL winner will be announced May 6.
The Hurricanes will continue to announce their year-end award winners on its Twitter page @WHLHurricanes.
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