The Dryden GM Ice Dogs season may be over but the awards keep coming.
Cole Golka was named to the first ever Canadian Junior Hockey League Central All-Star Team after a commanding season in the Superior International Junior Hockey League. Golka led the SIJHL with 47 goals and 89 points and tied for the league lead with nine game-winning goals.
The award came as a bit of a surprise to Golka. This being the first year of the all-star team he didn’t even know the CJHL was putting this together.
“I was looking on my twitter feed on my phone and I saw a tweet from the CJHL that said Central Canada All-Stars,” said Golka. “There was a link to it and I thought ‘let’s see who got the all-stars, let’s see what we got here.’ I clicked on the link there and my name happened to be up there, it was pretty cool.”
Golka says that the recognition by the CJHL will help him with recruiting when talking to potential schools. He hasn’t made a decision where he wants to play yet but he says he will be playing college hockey.
“There’s a number of schools, I narrowed it down though,” said Golka. “There’s a school in Duluth actually, Division Three school that I’m looking at and then possibly CIS program in St. Catharines. Division One, it’s tough for a guy my age to get a division one scholarship but you never know and that’s kind of up in the air as well.”
Golka is now back at home in Alberta but his fond memories of Dryden are sticking close to him.
“I love Dryden, fell in love with the town there,” said Golka. “Tough to leave and tough to leave my billets and all the people I met there. It was an awesome experience for me but it’s good to get home, establish a routine, start working, start summer training and prepare for next year.”
Golka was the only Superior International Junior Hockey League player to make the six-member team dominate by the Ontario Junior Hockey League, who led the way with three of the six slots.
Each CJHL All-Star will receive a CJHL All-Star Award and a certificate of recognition for their achievements.