Hockey Nova Scotia is pleased to announce that the Maritime Hockey League’s Yarmouth Mariners have been awarded the 2023 Fred Fox Award as our male team of the year.

This season, the Yarmouth Mariners enjoyed a year for the history books, capturing the Metalfab MHL Cup by defeating the Edmundston Blizzard in a four-game sweep to capture their third MHL championship in franchise history. En route to the title, the Mariners became the first team in MHL history to go 12-0 on their way to winning the league title.

Mariners goaltender Joey Lovullo was named MVP of the Metalfab MHL Cup Playoffs. The 19-year-old from Amherst, N.Y. won all ten of his playoff starts for the Mariners. He allowed one or fewer goals in five of those games, including two shutouts. Lovullo finished the postseason run with a 1.80 goals against average and a .939 save percentage.

After vanquishing the Pictou County Weeks Crushers and Truro Bearcats in consecutive series sweeps to win the Eastlink South Division title, the Mariners started the Metalfab MHL Cup Final with a 1-0 win on home ice over the Blizzard. Yarmouth went up 2-0 in the series after a 7-5 victory in a back-and-forth Game 2. The series shifted to Edmundston for Game 3 and 4, with the Mariners picking up a 3-2 victory in their first road game of the final and a 3-0 series lead.

That set the stage for a series-deciding court game. In Game 4, Edmundston grabbed the early lead with Coulombe scoring at 8:31 of the 1st period. But as they had done time and time again throughout the season and in the Metalfab MHL Cup Playoffs, Yarmouth responded in a big way with three goals in the period’s final four minutes. Franco Canevari tied the game at 16:03, Mayne gave the Mariners the lead at 17:35, and Michael Marquez scored at 19:57 for a 3-1 lead after the game’s opening period. Canevari scored the only goal of the 2nd period to give Yarmouth a 4-1 lead. Semple added a powerplay goal at 15:04 to seal the game for the Mariners. Lovullo made 44 saves in his team's win.

The Yarmouth Mariners’ most successful season in franchise history came to a close on May 19, after the team was edged 2-1 by the Portage Terriers in their quarterfinal matchup at the Centennial Cup.

On behalf of everyone at Hockey Nova Scotia, we would like to congratulate the Yarmouth Mariners on being the recipients of our 2023 Fred Fox Award.