Trail native Jake Lucchini ended his hockey career with the NCAA Michigan Tech Huskies on a high note.
Lucchini received the Merv Youngs Award for Most Valuable Player and the Gary Crosby Memorial Award as the Huskies’ leading scorer for the 2018-19 season.
The former Trail Smoke Eaters captain led the Huskies in scoring last season, netting 26 points on 11 goals and 15 assists.
Lucchini never missed a game in his Tech career, skating in 164 contests to lead all active college players in the category and finished one game short of tying a Tech record.
Lucchini became the 66th player in Tech history to reach 100 career points, finishing with 104 points on 45 goals and 59 assists. As a senior, he co-captained the Huskies and was named to the WCHA All-Academic team. The 24-year-old forward signed an NHL contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins on March 11 and played 15 games for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the AHL at the end of their regular season.
The WBS Penguins finished just out of the playoffs in the AHL’s Atlantic Division with a 36-30-7-3 record. Lucchini finished the season with six goals and seven points for the Pens.
In other AHL action:The second-seeded Bridegport Sound Tigers lost the services of Trail native Travis St. Denis for Game 2 of the Atlantic Division semifinal and it cost them. St. Denis was called for boarding in the third period of Game 1 and received a 10-minute misconduct and a game. The Sound Tigers went on to win 3-2 in double-OT over the third-seed Hershey Bears, but with St. Denis out of the line up, the Bears shut out the Tigers 2-0 in Game 2.
Montrose product Connor Jones also plays for Bridegport and had four shots on goal on Saturday but couldn’t beat Hershey goalie Vitek Vanecek, who stopped all 39 Tiger shots for the shut out.
In Game 1 Friday, the Tigers came back from a 2-0 deficit late in the second period on their way to a 3-2 double-overtime win, thanks to a goal from Kieffer Bellows. All three of the Tigers goals came on the power play, as Bridgeport outshot the Bears 52-31.
The series resumes in Hershey Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
Meanwhile the Atlantic Division’s top seed, Charlotte Checkers, split their series opening games with the Providence Bruinis losing 4-2 on Sunday following a 5-4 win Saturday. The Checkers also have another former Smoke Eaters captain on their roster in Scott Davidson, who was signed to an amateur tryout contract earlier this month.
Davidson finished his career with the Quinnipiac University Bobcats as assistant captain and signed with the Checkers Apr. 10, but has yet to see any game minutes.
The Checkers-Bruins series resumes Wednesday night.