FOR a second straight season there is a local player celebrating an English Elite Hockey League championship.
Jeff Heerema of Thunder Bay had a goal and an assist Sunday to help lead the Nottingham Panthers to a 5-4 victory over the Cardiff Devils and capture the EEHL playoff title.
The league’s final four championship tournament was held in Nottingham with the Panthers knocking off No. 1 seed Sheffield 4-3 in overtime in one semifinal with Heerema adding a marker and setting up another in that contest as well.
Cardiff upended the defending league champion Belfast Giants 4-1 in the other semifinal match-up.
Mike Jacobsen had the lone goal for the Giants in that one as Belfast’s bid to repeat fell short.
Heerema finished tied for top spot in playoff scoring in the EEHL and averaged over a point-per-game since he joined the club midway through the season in the 10-team loop.
WEEKLY NOD: One of the North American Hockey League players of the week awards was won by an area athlete.
Jordan Davis of Devlin earned the NAHL South weekly nod for his efforts with the Topeka Road Runners.
The 20-year-old forward was recognized for picking up five points as Topeka wrapped up league play with a two-game set vs. Amarillo.
He also posted a plus-5 rating as part of his award-winning effort.
Finishing with the best overall record in the 26-team NAHL, Topeka is taking on Wichita Falls in the opening round of the playoffs.
The Road Runners were up 1-0 heading into game 2 of the best-of-five set played Sunday evening in Topeka.
Davis picked up 48 points in 53 games during the course of the regular season and registered an assist in the playoff opener.
RE-SIGNED: Mike Kompon will be back playing in Europe for yet another year.
The 29-year-old Thunder Bay native who skates for Munich in the DEL, the top professional league in Germany, has re-signed through at least the 2011-12 season.
It will mark Kompon’s sixth season playing in Munich as well as eighth overall as a professional.
In his first seven years in the pro ranks Kompon has amassed 420 points in 378 games including 130 goals.
500 CLUB: In the lengthy history of the National Hockey League only 401 players among the 6,000-plus who have ever donned a jersey have recorded 500 or more points in their respective careers.
Eric Staal was primed to be number 402 in that category as the Carolina Hurricanes captain sat at 499 points entering a game Sunday vs. Buffalo.
A second period goal in that contest gave him the milestone as the second youngest player ever to win a Stanley Cup, Olympic and world hockey championship gold medal now has 226 goals and 274 assists in his star-studded career.
OHL COMBINE: Thunder Bay minor midget Kings netminder Riley Corbin was one of 24 goaltenders that took part in the Ontario Hockey League Development Combine over the weekend in Mississauga.
The program offered the goalkeepers as well as 60 skaters the opportunity to showcase themselves both on and off the ice to OHL member team personnel.
The event was staged to assist league clubs in their evaluation of talent for the upcoming 2011 OHL Priority Selection Draft, which goes May 7.