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AJHL honours Fleming

Nate Fleming was rewarded for his pride and passion with the Spruce Grove Saints as the winner of the Don McNabb Memorial Trophy, presented annually to the Alberta Junior Hockey League player judged the most dedicated to his team.

Nate Fleming was rewarded for his pride and passion with the Spruce Grove Saints as the winner of the Don McNabb Memorial Trophy, presented annually to the Alberta Junior Hockey League player judged the most dedicated to his team.

"It's an honour to be picked out of all the guys in the league to win an award like that. Even on my team, there are so many guys that could've won it," Fleming told the Gazette Wednesday.

Previous winners from the Saints, when the team was based in St. Albert, were Troy Murray (1978/79), Dustin Fahl (1990/91) and Nick Johnson (2003/04).

"It's a nice little feather in the cap," said Fleming.

His last major individual honour was the inaugural John Reid Memorial Award for heart and hustle at the 2004 St. Albert Sabres' bantam AAA tournament.

"The John Reid award was pretty special too. It was for the same kind of thing as this award but it was for a tournament. This was a league-wide award, which is pretty big," said the Saints' assistant captain.

The St. Albert minor hockey product beat out Zahn Raubenheimer of the Grande Prairie Storm, Corey Campbell of the Olds Grizzlys and Brad Drobot of the Calgary Royals for the coveted trophy. Two players from the north and south divisions were picked as finalists by the league's general managers and coaches. They also voted on the award winner.

"I've always tried to be a hard worker and I'm focused on all the little things so maybe that's why I was recognized," Fleming said. "I guess it helped that I've played a lot of games. I think this year I played in my 200th consecutive game. I've also played the most games on my team this year."

The 21-year-old centre turned in a stellar season with the number-one ranked junior A team in Canada. The Paul Kane High School graduate finished second in team scoring, and tied for 16th overall in the AJHL's point race, with 61 in 59 games. His 23 goals included seven game winners, in addition to eight power play markers.

"I certainly started shooting a little more this year and I've got more goals than I had in past years [15 in 2007/08 and 16 last season]," said Fleming, flanked by Joshua Lazowski, the top scoring Saint with 78 points, and Scott Allen for most of the regular season. "I expected myself to sort of be around a point per game this year but we have so much depth on this team and you never know how you're going to put up points with all the players we have. We almost have four number one lines going out there every night so it's still a little bit of a surprise that I was as successful as I was this year but it helps having good linemates that we have on our team."

In the last league game before the playoffs, Fleming registered his 100th assist in the AJHL on a goal by the league's rookie-of-the-year, defenceman Dillon Simpson in Sunday's 5-0 victory over the Crusaders in Sherwood Park.

The third-year Saint wrapped up his AJHL career with 54 goals and 154 points in 180 games.

Last month the former midget AAA St. Albert Raider played in his first AJHL all-star game.

"It's definitely good to go out with all these accolades, team-wise as well as individually. Hopefully it can turn into both a scholarship for myself and a championship for our team," said Fleming, who has received a handful of CIS offers but still dreams of playing NCAA division one hockey.

Super Saints

The Saints march into the playoffs with the most points in AJHL history with 108 and equalled league records for the most wins at 52 and the fewest losses with four in regulation time. Their 99 goals against and 11 shutouts also made it into the record book.

Last year the Saints were the team to beat while running away with the league pennant with 101 points at 46-7-4-5. However, they self-destructed in the final as the Grande Prairie Storm swept the series in four straight games.

Fleming led the team offensively with four goals and six assists in 13 games. His goal late in game four in Grande Prairie forced overtime as the Saints battled to stave off elimination.

"We've definitely learned from last year that it doesn't matter what you did in the regular season. We sort of read our press clippings a lot and it bit us in the end. We fell apart at the wrong time that's for sure," he said. "This year we're definitely focused on taking it one game at a time. We have to be ready to go for every game in the playoffs."

With a first round bye for the second straight year, the Saints are playing the waiting game to see who they will match up against in the best-of-seven north division second round series.

"We're anxious to get the playoffs started," Fleming said. "The last little while we've known we would be the first place team but I don't think the bye will hurt us either. We had the bye last year and we had a pretty good start to the playoffs. We just have to remain focused and practise hard and keep the intensity up because we know the other teams that are playing are going to have that intensity in their games."

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