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Mike Hosfield MVP, Anders Jecha repeats as Goalie of the Year

By USA Bandy, 08/12/14, 2:00PM CDT

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U.S. Rink Bandy Awards Announced

Mike Hosfield has been named MVP of the 2014 U.S. Rink Bandy regular season. The 7 first place votes he received made him the runaway winner. Hosfield managed and captained the Missisippi MoJo to an 8-2 record and the number 2 seed in the Cannon Cup playoffs. His 26 goals in 9 games were 3rd in the league, tallying 5 goals in a game on three different occasions.

The MoJo’s strong regular season was a direct result of Hosfield’s continuing to play bandy at the highest level. Eye hand coordination second to none, spectacular creativity, an accurate shot, and a pass first mentality make ‘Hoss’ the most dangerous player on the ice. His love of NHL star Pavel Datsyuk is fitting, as Mike is also an excellent two-way player. If takeaways were kept as a stat, he would certainly be amongst the league leaders.

 

Anders Jecha, Washburn Dynamo, has retained his title as the best rink bandy goalie in the nation. The 2013 Goalie of the Year winner was as good, if not better in 2014. A 4.4 goals against average was tops in the league. Surrendering only 2 goals on four different occasions, as well as a 1 goal against performance versus the MoJo (including blanking MVP Mike Hosfield). Performances like this will win any team lots of bandy games. With ‘Jex’ playing as well as ever near the end of the season, Dynamo is thinking anything is possible in the playoffs this year.

The voting was tighter than expected with the Minnehaha Mauler’s Joe Howe turning more than a few heads this summer, but in the end Jecha was the voter’s choice. Jecha’s size, quickness, and attention to the fundamentals make him at times nearly impossible to beat. The consistency is there as well with Anders; starting all 10 games for Dynamo, he never gave up more than 8 in any match. Given the firepower playing in the rink bandy league this year, that is not an easy feat.

    

In the most lopsided voting result of any of the awards, Chris Middlebrook and John Magunson have been named Managers of the Year for 2014. Their introduction of the Saints franchise as well as another top caliber performance by Dynamo Washburn made Brooker and Johnny M. the easy choice. Their years of support and dedication to bandy in general in the United States would be enough to lock up this award, but the product on the ice was the real reason these two are the 2014 Managers of the Year.

While the Saints had a bit of a rocky start to their rink bandy career in the win loss column, their improvement and understanding of the game got better and better each week. The Saints pushed the #2 MoJo to the brink in a week 3 battle falling just short by as score of  7-9.  It took a last second, miracle goal by Nick Hauer of the Duluth Tigers to robb the Saints of their first points, losing 5-6 in week 6.

Dynamo Washburn, still very much in the hunt for the Cannon Cup, have improved as much as any team in the league in recent years. A team first mentality and a strong core group of young talent have made Middlebrook and Magnuson’s top team one of the leagues finest.

 

Top 2 seeds advance in playoffs, Semifinal matchups set

 

    The top seeded Minnehaha Maulers overpowered the Edina Yaks 7-5 in Monday night’s featured quarterfinal. Behind a dominant 4 goal performance by Mikael Lickteig, and yet another stellar goaltending job by Joe Howe, The Maulers jumped out to a 7-3 lead and held on to advance to the semifinals.

    The Maulers have been given a chance to avenge their only regular season loss on Wednesday evening’s game with Spanky’s United. On the line is a ticket to the Cannon Cup finals. Spanky’s put up one of the surprise results of the season with an 8-4 victory over the Maulers in week 3. With both of these high powered offenses firing on all cylinders, this semifinal matchup promises to be a shootout until the end.

    MVP Mike Hosfield and his Missippi MoJo were able to exorcise their demons from last year’s playoff overtime defeat by squeezing past The Orioles 6-3 in the quarterfinal. After a 5-2 first half which saw the MoJo quickly jump out to a 4-0 lead, the second half was a grind it out, pack it in affair, with only 2 total goals finding the back of the nets. Both goaltenders were superb throughout the evening, with the MoJo’s Derek Melander playing arguably his best game of the season at just the right time.

    The MoJo’s demon exorcising ability will be tested once again this Wednesday, as they face off against Dynamo Washburn in the evenings second Cannon Cup semifinal. Dynamo completely dominated the MoJo in their week 8 match up, barraging them with a crushing 7-1 decision. Goalie of the Year Anders Jecha was nearly unbeatable that night, and if he’s on form again this time around the MoJo will certainly need to dig deep to somehow find the back of the net.