MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- Anyone even remotely following the Western Hockey League playoffs couldn’t have been surprised when Player of the Month for April was announced on Wednesday afternoon.
When you’re on the kind of post-season roll Moose Jaw Warriors captain Denton Mateychuk is on, major awards are definitely going to come your way.
The Columbus Blue Jackets first-rounder put up an impressive six goals and 21 points and a plus-16 rating through 10 playoff games in April to hold the WHL scoring lead heading into Game 4 of the Eastern Conference final against the Saskatoon Blades on Wednesday night.
Mateychuk has had six multi-point games through the first two-and-a-half rounds of the playoffs, including a near-record-setting effort against Swift Current in Game 2 of their second-round series.
That contest saw Mateychuk rack up a goal and five assists in the first two periods as the Warriors went on to a 7-2 victory in Game 2 of the series. That effort came a single point away from tying the WHL record for points in a single game by a defenceman, with that record book including the ultra-high-scoring days from the mid-80s and early-90s.
Included in Mateychuk’s showing is an impressive turn on special teams, with a power play goal, five power play assists and two shorthanded goals over the 10 games thus far.
Mateychuk is the East Division nominee for the Bill Hunter Trophy as the WHL Defenceman of the Year, having put up 17 goals and 75 points in 52 games in the regular season. Team Canada World Junior duties kept Mateychuk from capping the campaign as the league’s highest-scoring defenceman, and while he finished third overall, his 1.44 points per game were tops in the league.
Mateychuk’s honour marks the third straight month that a Moose Jaw Warrior has been named the Player of the Month, with Atley Calvert claiming the honour after putting up 13 goals and 27 points in February and Jagger Firkus winning after scoring 16 goals and 27 points in 12 games in March.
It’s the second recent major award for the Warriors after netminder Jackson Unger was named the Goaltender of the Week on Monday.
-- with files from whl.ca
