Labanc Earns Pioneer Energy OHL Player of the Week
Toronto, ON – The Ontario Hockey League today announced that San Jose Sharks prospect Kevin Labanc of the Barrie Colts is the Pioneer Energy OHL Player of the Week for the week ending January 3 opening the league’s second half with 13 points in four games scoring seven goals and six assists with a plus-minus rating of plus-11.
Labanc earns the award for the second time this season helping the Colts win three of four games to maintain first place in the Central Division standings with 45 points. He opened 2016 by matching a franchise record with seven points on Saturday night in a huge 12-2 win over the North Bay Battalion where he scored his first hat-trick of the season and added four assists. The performance earned Labanc first star honours equalling the seven-point output by Andreas Athanasiou back on February 13, 2014. Labanc began the week with a first star effort on Monday night scoring two goals and one assist as part of a 5-4 shootout win over the Niagara IceDogs, then scored a goal and an assist on New Year’s Eve in a 6-3 win over the Sudbury Wolves. He finished the week by scoring a shorthanded marker, his league-best fifth of the season, in a 5-3 road loss to the Battalion on Sunday afternoon.
A 20-year-old from Staten Island, New York, Labanc is playing in his third OHL season with the Colts. He is currently second in league scoring with 21 goals and 41 assists for 62 points in 34 games after finishing sixth in league scoring last season with 107 points (31 goals and 76 assists) in 68 games. The former New Jersey Rocket was selected by the Sharks in the sixth round of the 2014 NHL Draft.
Watch video highlights of Labanc and the Colts against the IceDogs, Wolves, and Battalion.
Also considered for the award this week was fellow Colt and Calgary Flames prospect Andrew Mangiapane who recorded two goals and seven assists for nine points in four games, and Adam Mascherin of the Kitchener Rangers with two goals and six assists for eight points in four games. In goal, Mario Culina of the Windsor Spitfires made his first two career starts and posted a 2-0-0-0 record with a goals-against-average of 1.50 and save percentage of .933.
