“It’s been a pretty good season. We are up there, battling for first place with Nepean,” Lumber Kings team captain Sean Crozier said last week.

A member of the last two CJHL champion Pembroke teams, the 20-year-old native of Renfrew is sporting the C on the front of his sweater in his final year of Junior A hockey eligibility with the Lumber Kings.

Crozier knows it’s a privilege to be the captain of a hockey team at any level, and respects it.

“It’s quite an honour being from Renfrew to be the captain of the Lumber Kings, following in the footsteps of (Renfrew’s) Jason Walters, (last year’s captain) Scott Campbell and Neil Trimm (of Cobden).”

A product of the Renfrew Minor Hockey system and former Junior B Timberwolf, the six-foot-two 205-pound right-winger scored 11 goals and added 23 assists for 34 points last season, while showing a willingness to participate in the physical aspect of the game, with 101 penalty minutes.

Crozier also made his presence felt on the Lumber Kings powerplay in 2007-08, with five goals.

Four of his five goals this year have come with the extra man.

Despite the Lumber Kings first-place standing in the Yzerman Division and overall CJHL standings, Crozier stresses, no one can be taken lightly. Case in point, Sunday’s (Nov. 16) 1-0 victory over the Kemptville 73s at the Pembroke Memorial Centre when former Wolves netminder Ben Curley almost stole the game for Kemptville with a 47-save performance before Lucas Romero scored to give the Lumber Kings the victory 45 seconds into overtime.

“Every team can beat everybody. It’s a battle every night,” Crozier observes.

“We don’t have the (offence) team that we had last year,” he adds.

“We have to grind out our wins. We’re not going to score five or six goals every night. But that’s okay. We are learning to win the close games, the kind you have to, to win in the playoffs.”