Bringing home hardware

Big day for Toronto as Spooner named MVP, Ryan coach of the year and Campbell top goalie

- MARK COLLEY

Toronto forward Natalie Spooner was the PWHL's points leader with 20 goals and seven assists in 24 regular season games.

Toronto may not have won the PWHL’s Walter Cup, but it has a few pieces of hardware it can add to the shelf.

Star Natalie Spooner won the league’s Billie Jean King MVP Award on Tuesday after a dominant offensive season in which she led all players in goals and points, while head coach Troy Ryan was named coach of the year and Kristen Campbell won goalie of the year.

Spooner was also named forward of the year. She had 20 goals and seven assists in 24 regular season games, scoring nearly a third of Toronto’s 67 goals and seven of the team’s 11 power-play goals. She was a driving factor in the team’s 11-game winning streak, scoring 10 goals and assisting on five more over that span.

And that streak changed the trajectory of the season. Toronto started the season with two wins in its first seven games, plummeting to last place in the six-team league only three weeks after the first game. But the winning streak — led by Ryan off the ice, and Spooner on it — put Toronto in first.