Four Chilliwack Chiefs grads are off to strong starts in the ranks of NCAA Div 1 hockey.
Four of them won awards in October, including two Rookie of the Month honours.
Massimo Rizzo snagged one of those in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC). Rizzo, who was with the Chiefs all of last season, but didn’t play due to injury, is now a freshman at the University of Denver. The 20-year-old from Burnaby had five goals and eight points in Denver’s first six games to tie for the NCHC rookie lead.
Rizzo recorded four multi-point games and two multi-goal games, and won 57.1 per cent of his faceoffs.
Carter Wilkie was three times the Rookie of the Week in Atlantic Hockey, making him a slam-dunk choice for Rookie of the Month.
The Calgary kid, who started his BCHL career in Chilliwack before being traded to West Kelowna, put up four goals and six points in eight games for the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Tigers.
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Jumping to the East Coast Athletic Conference, Skyler Brind’Amour earned a Player of the Week award with the Quinnipiac Bobcats. The junior forward collected three points opening weekend at the Icebreaker tournament. He had a goal and an assist in a 2-2 tie versus Boston College, and had an assist against Northeastern, earning a spot on the All-Tournament Team.
Brind’Amour spent two years in Chilliwack (2017 to 2019) and was part of the Royal Bank Cup championship squad in 2018.
And finally, over in the Big 10, Kevin Wall earned 1st Star honours for the week of Oct. 26 after lighting up the scoreboard with Penn State. Wall tallied five goals in a weekend sweep of Niagara University, including his first career NCAA hat-trick in a 6-2 win.
The 2019 sixth-round draft pick of the Carolina Hurricanes spent the 2018-19 season with Chilliwack. He finished eighth in BCHL scoring.