BOSTON, Mass. -- Northern Cyclones forward Kevin Valenti's superlative-filled season continues with an upcoming appearance in the EHL Playoff championship finals, and a few more individual awards to fill his resume as he was named the EHL's Most Valuable Player and Forward of the Year by the EHL head coaches.

Northern Cyclones bench boss Bill Flanagan attributes Valenti's on-ice success this season, to old-fashioned off-ice workouts last summer.  "You could tell as soon as he walked into (traing camp last fall) that he made that hard commitment to spend that additional time he needed to get stronger in his legs and upper body,” Flanagan told USA Hockey.com.

Valenti, a 20-year-old from Queensbury, N.Y., said he spent two hours in the weight room each day, concentrating primarily on his legs, doing squats and slides. In addition to increasing his squats by 140 pounds, he added upper-body strength while improving his bench press by 80 pounds.

Valenti jumped out to an ealry lead in the EHL goal-scoring and point races and never came close to relinquishing either one.  He finished the season on top of the point race by 13 (76 points); on top of the goal-scoring race by 9 (35 goals); and also led the league with seven game-winning goals.

A Utica College commit for 2014-15, Valenti's second-seeded Cyclones head into a best-of-five EHL Playoff championship series this week against the top-seeded New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs.