Now in their respective final seasons of NCAA hockey, Alex Petan and Joey Benik are perhaps saving their best for last.
Petan is the only player in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association scoring race averaging better than a point per game in conference play and just led the Michigan Tech Huskies to an undefeated month of January. Benik helped the St. Cloud State University Huskies go 8-1-1 in January while putting up a monster 15 points in 10 games on six goals and nine assists.
Both players took their conference’s Player of the Month honours.
Petan helped his Huskies go 3-0-3 while registering four goals and two assists. The Delta, B.C. product did all of his league offensive damage against the WCHA’s top defensive teams (and two of the top-ten units in the country in Minnesota State and Bowling Green), leading the charge as the Huskies averaged 3.25 goals per game and collected six of a possible eight league points in those two series. He leads Michigan Tech with 14 goals and 25 points in 25 games this season.
With the Coquitlam Express, Petan played three BCHL seasons and was the 2013 Coastal Conference MVP after putting up 38 goals and 50 assists. He had 54-74-128 in 155 BCHL games.
Benik’s production moved him up to 13th overall in NCAA scoring and helped SCSU maintain pace with North Dakota for top spot in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC).
With Penticton, Benik played two seasons and racked up 60 goals and 92 assists for 152 points in 120 career games. He helped the Vees to an historic 2011-12 season that included a 42-game winning streak and an RBC Cup national championship.
