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Langley's Ingram, Surrey's Mills honoured with BCHL awards

Pair won Kelly Sutherland Award as top referee and Brad Lazarowich Award as top linesman

A pair of local officials were the recipients of some hardware from the B.C. Hockey League.

Langley's Jeff Ingram was presented the Kelly Sutherland Award as the top referee while Surrey's Bevan Mills was honoured with the Brad Lazarowich Award as the top linesman.

They were announced as the winners on May 27.

The award is named after Walnut Grove's Lazarowich, a linesman in the National Hockey League since 1986. He did some volunteer work during the NHL lockout this past season with both the BCHL and the B.C. Hockey Association as a linesman supervisor.

Ingram, a level 6 official, also referees in the Western Hockey League and in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport, and was selected to officiate the CIS championships this past season.

At the junior A level, he was chosen to do both the Fred Page Cup — the league's championship series — and the Western Canada Cup, including the championship final.

"He has been a top referee in the BCHL for many years and is committed to excellence both on and off the ice," said Derek Adams, the BCHL's director of officiating.

"Jeff has acted as a mentor to our young referees and is a leader on our staff who sets the bar extremely high for the standard of how we want our games in the BCHL to be officiated."

Mills has been a BCHL linesman since 2004 and has worked the Fred Page Cup for the past four years. He was also chosen to officiate in the Western Canada Cup this year.

He is also a linesman in the AHL and the WHL and was selected to work the recent Memorial Cup in Saskatoon.

"The mark of a great linesman is one who makes the referee's job easier because he works hard at being proactive in preventing situations from escalating," Adams said.

"That's what makes Bevan such a great linesman.

"Bevan is extremely professional and respectful both on and off the ice and is committed to making the officiating team the best on the ice every night."