Belanger, Denis share hockey’s Al Baker, MVP awards

One player’s stats may have been slightly more gaudy than the other’s, but the impact seniors Joey Belanger and Gavin Denis had on the Rhinelander High School boys’ hockey program this season and throughout their four-year careers were hard to separate. 

So when it came time to pick one or the other for the team’s two most prestigious awards, M.J. Laggis and the Hodag coaching staff didn’t.

Instead, Belanger and Denis shared both the team’s Most Valuable Player award and the Alfred O. Baker award given to the team’s most outstanding senior during the team’s banquet last Tuesday in the RHS commons. 

Belanger will go down as the most prolific scorer in program history, amassing 110 goals and 202 total points over his four-year career. Thirty of those goals and 26 assists came this season. Denis was Belanger’s running mate on the top line and had a career year with 21 goals and 17 assists. 

In his comments during last Tuesday’s banquet, Laggis said it was impossible to quantify one player’s worth over the other’s.

“In this case, this is the right thing to do because these guys produced 63% of our scoring,” he said. “Between the two of them, they were a wrecking crew for us. They created some synergy at times during games and during shifts. They turned some games around and did some things we desperately needed. And we were running the wheels off them, too. We were overplaying them every game. It’s not lost on me they were getting too many minutes, I totally understand that.”

This year marked only the sixth occasion over the Al Baker Award’s 35-year history that is was shared by more than one player. Three of those have occurrences have happened over the last six years. 

In presenting the award — named in honor of Baker, who was the Hodags’ head coach from 1949-1961 — Laggis lauded Belanger’s natural goal-scoring ability and praised Denis’ work ethic, which has allowed him to pursue playing opportunities after high school.

“In thinking about that award, Gavin Denis has worked so hard day in and day out it’s incredible. Joey has never met a puck he didn’t want to shoot and that just does my heart good,” Laggis said. “You want to score, you want to make a difference, shoot the puck. He does it with the best of them. He is, without a doubt, the best goal-scorer I’ve been around. When I think about what he’s brought to the table, and what Gavin’s brought to the table with his hard work and work ethic, they’re a great fit for this award and Al Baker would be proud.”

The awards were two of six handed out by the team last Tuesday. In addition to his other hardware, Belanger won the Playmaker Award as the team’s leader in assists on the year. Junior Zach Edyvean won the Blue Line Award as the team’s top defenseman, senior Dalton Fritz was named to team’s most improved player and junior Timber Cronauer received the Hodag Award. 

    Rhinelander High School boys’ hockey team award winners pose for a photograph following the team’s banquet in the RHS commons Tuesday, March 19. Pictured, from left to right, are Timber Cronauer, Joey Belanger, Gavin Denis, Zach Edyvean and Dalton Fritz. (Bob Mainhardt for the River News)
  

Edyvean finished the season with three goals and eight assists. His move back to defense a few games into the year helped to shore up a blue line unit that was in transition after graduating its top three players from the season prior. 

“We were in a real funk trying to figure out how we were going to create some defensemen and what we were going to do. I remember finally talking to coach and saying, ‘I’m just gonna talk to Zach and see what he says.’ It was just an automatic yes. That’s what he was going to do to help the team,” Laggis said. “What was most overwhelming to me is that he wanted the team to do well and he put that in front of going out and trying to score his own personal goals. He was a huge force on our team this year.”

Fritz came into the season as the Hodags’ most-seasoned defenseman and finished the season with three goals and 10 assists. Laggis praised the improvement Fritz made not just this season, but over the course of his high school career. 

“We had the luxury of seeing how he started as a freshman and what he looked like on the ice and who he was behind,” Laggis said. “He emerged last year as a really nice defenseman for us and was a real contributor. This year he was all over the ice and had some great offensive moments. He’s a highly-skilled kid. He really is and I’d have to say, over the course of a career … he just grew, obviously in size, but he grew in confidence. He was a really, really part of the nucleus of our locker room.”

Cronauer won the Hodag Award despite, ironically, being one of only two players on the squad this year who does not attend Rhinelander High School. The Wabeno junior had six goals and an assist on the season, with nearly half of his points coming on the power play. Laggis credited Cronauer for his impact both on and off the ice. 

“Timber is that guy can be a menace in the corner. He really grew into that role on the power play, played in front of the net and tried to create some havoc. He evolved into that role more as the year went and he is, without a doubt, one of the best locker room guys I’ve been around,” Laggis said. “When the heat’s on and a game is going good or a game’s going bad, on any team you’re going to find guys that turn on each other and are negative … and he’s 100% a guy that goes the other way and pulls in the right direction all the time. He’s one of the better guys I’ve been around in terms of how he treats coaches, teammates, officials and how he carries himself.”

The Hodags went 7-15-0 on the season, tying for sixth in the Great Northern Conference. Rhinelander fell into opening round of the WIAA playoffs to eventual state qualifier Tomahawk by a final of 5-3.

Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].