The Ridge Meadows Flames have a pair of exhibition hockey games against the Langley Trappers this week, and are preparing for a new season with "real" games starting early next month.
The Flames will be at The Lodge on Tuesday, Aug. 27 at 7 p.m. against Langley, and then on Thursday, Aug. 29 will host the Trappers at Planet Ice in Maple Ridge.
Those will be their second and third exhibition games of the season. The Flames put together a local roster with 15 kids from Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows for a pre-season tilt against the Grandview Steelers on Aug. 23 at Planet Ice. They lost 4-3 in a shootout, but there were nine players who played their first junior hockey game last night.
The Flames recently announced their team award winners from their Stonehouse Cup championship season, and the MVP was Jack Foster, who became the Flames all-time points leader with 186 points in his final season.
The scoring champions were Foster and Theo Kochan, who had 74 points each. Foster was also in on the Most Inspirational award, which he shared with team captain Lukas Ravenstein. Kochan was also named the Most Valuable Forward, after scoring 55 goals between the regular season and playoffs, leading the league in each.
Most Valuable Defenceman went to talented blueliner Jakob Loewen, who had 56 points in 47 games, and is now the franchise's top-scoring defender of all time.
Matthew Candusso was named the Defensive Athlete of the Year, as the goaltender went 21-3 with a 0.927 save percentage and 1.63 goals against average.
Jacobe Roch won for Most Sportsmanlike, playing a physical brand of hockey on the Kid Line but only being whistled for two minor penalties.
Sam Allen was named Most Improved, after jumping from 15 points in 2022-23 up to 37 last year, and being named a league all-star.
Rookie of the Year was forward Josh Bettesworth who registered 15 points in 43 games, appeared in all playoff games, and centered the valuable Kid Line.
The Hard Hat Athlete of the Year was won by Pierce Whyte.
The Flames will play a last exhibition game against Grandview on Sept. 3 at Burnaby Winter Club, and then will open regular season action on Sept. 6 at Cam Neely Arena against the White Rock Whalers.
