Carter Newpower Goal 3.20.22
MASON CITY, Iowa – When a West Division player scores 90-plus points in an NA3HL season, it tends to turn a few heads.
Mason City Toros forward Carter Newpower turned a lot of heads this season, coming up just shy of the North American 3 Hockey League’s 2021-22 scoring title against the league’s deepest and most competitive division.
The Cottage Grove, Minnesota native was named the league’s Most Valuable Player and Forward of the Year on Wednesday, giving the organization its third MVP and Forward of the Year awards all-time. The most recent player to bring an NA3HL MVP award to the River City was current Rapid City Rush forward Brett Gravelle in 2015-16, posting a league-best 99 points and scoring a then-league-record 57 goals. North Iowa Bulls career scoring leader Matt Kroska brought home the award in 2013-14 with a 122-point showing.
Newpower stacked up 37 goals and 54 assists this season, the highest total for an NA3HL player in Mason City since Gravelle’s remarkable run six years ago, and added seven more points in five Fraser Cup playoff games. Oklahoma City’s Robby Rabroker’s late-season surge helped him edge out Newpower for the league scoring title, finishing with 92 points of his own.
His 91 points is also the highest-ever mark by a West Division player with remaining junior eligibility – Newpower signed a North American Hockey League tender with the North Iowa Bulls this past winter, and will look to spend his final season of junior hockey in the NAHL after posting 122 points over a two-year run in the NA3HL. His sensational season has already bumped him onto the franchise’s top-10 career scoring list, and his point-and-a-half-per-game average also ranks 10th in team history among players who played at least 40 NA3HL games in Mason City.
Defenseman Brendan Sloth earned some kudos of his own, earning a spot on the all-West Division team. Sloth finished with 44 points, ranking fourth on this year’s Toros roster. He scored just five goals this past season, but excelled in a setup role with 39 assists, finishing third on the team in that category.
The Anoka, Minnesota native earned a captaincy role this season after helping the North Iowa Bulls close their run in the NA3HL with a Fraser Cup title last season. With 50 points, he ranks eighth on the organization’s all-time scoring list among defensemen.
Sloth’s honor continues a run that has seen a North Iowa Bull or Mason City Toro defenseman on the all-division team every season since the NA3HL began implementing All-Division teams in 2014.
