News release
9 April 2010
Capping a season in which he led the league in scoring, shattered team records, and made history, Elmira Jackals winger Tyler Donati was named the CCM U+ ECHL Most Valuable Player for 2009-2010 on Friday.
The CCM U+ Most Valuable Player award is presented annually to the player selected to be the most valuable to his team as voted by the coaches of each ECHL team.
Donati, the first Jackal to win the award, led the ECHL with 114 points and 76 assists in 2009-2010. He set a new Jackals high for points in one season, breaking Randy Murphy's record from 2002-2003 of 93 points, when he scored his 94th point, a game-tying goal in the third period, on Mar. 13 against Cincinnati. Donati's 76 assists are the most ever by a Jackal in one season.
The Oakville, Ontario native also led the ECHL with 35 power-play assists and 44 power-play points.
Tyler and Justin Donati became the first brothers in professional hockey history to each score 100 points on the same team in the same season when Justin had an assist on Apr. 2 against Trenton.
The older of the twin brothers, Tyler was named to the All-ECHL 1st Team after winning the league's scoring title with the most points in a single season since Wheeling's Darren Schwartz had 114 points in 1992-1993. Tyler also was named the Reebok Hockey ECHL Player of the Month for Febraury and was the Sher-Wood Hockey ECHL Player of the Week twice this season.
Coming off a crucial 5-2 victory on the road on Wednesday to even their best-of-five American Conference Quarterfinal series 1-1, the Jackals will host the Florida Everblades at First Arena for Game 3 on Friday at 7:35 p.m. and Game 4 on Saturday at 7:35 p.m. Game 5 will be played on Sunday at 4:05 p.m, if necessary.