MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – Men's hockey student-athlete Cam Gotaas has been named the Sutton Player of the Month for February.
MacEwan's captain recorded four goals and 11 assists for 15 points in seven February games, leading the Griffins to 5-2 record in the month.
"There's a lot of great athletes who I'm sure had great months, so just to be chosen is nice," said Gotaas, who was quick to credit linemates Bryan Arneson and Nicolas Correale for his production.
"It's a little pat on the back, but the award we're looking for is at the end of March."
Gotaas, who will soon lead MacEwan on a quest for a fourth-straight Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference championship, finished the regular season with 15 goals and 25 assists, becoming the first Griffins player to reach 40 points in a season since Gordon Bell had 42 in 2003-04.
"There's been some really good players who've come through here, so that's a big honour," he said. "But like I said a lot of the credit goes to my teammates and linemates. If you look, I've had more assists than goals this year, so someone's got to put the puck in the net. That's a credit to them."
Arneson, who led the Griffins with 17 goals – tying the eighth-best single season output by a Griffin – had four goals and seven assists in six February games, while Correale had four goals and three assists in seven appearances during the month.
"I think we were playing our best hockey," said Gotaas of MacEwan's play down the stretch, which included a 3-2 win over top-seeded NAIT on Friday. "We didn't get the bye, which we wanted to last weekend, but we played a really good game (in a 3-1 loss on Saturday to NAIT). It could have gone either way. So, we've got to be happy about that.
"Just personally, I've got to give credit to my two linemates – Arneson and Correale because they make life easy. We just had the bounces this month and hopefully that continues into playoffs."
As this month's winner, Gotaas receives a free night's stay at the Sutton Place Hotel in downtown Edmonton.
Gotaas will lead the Griffins into the opening round of the playoffs this weekend when they host cross-town rival Concordia in a best-of-three quarter-final.
Game 1 is set for Friday (7 p.m., Downtown Community Arena), Game 2 goes Saturday (7 p.m., Clareview Arena) and Game 3, if necessary, is scheduled for Sunday (1 p.m., DCA).
