Bryan Canter doesn’t need an audience, but he certainly seems to draw a lot of attention.

The smooth-skating center for the Helena Bighorns Junior A hockey team lit up the scoreboard and a few of his teammates faces throughout the year, thanks to strong stickhandling, a quick shot and apparently a pretty good singing voice.

“There’s a song called ‘Do You Know’ by Enrique Iglesias and just seeing (Canter) in the locker room, playing that song after every win and just dancing to it and singing to it like there’s no tomorrow, I’ll never forget that,” said forward and linemate Willie Boyle.

Since coming to the Bighorns at the beginning of the season, Canter has often been a breath of fresh air, whether that’s by keeping his team ahead of their opponents, or his teammates loose on the bench.

The 20-year-old from Anchorage, Alaska, led the team during the regular season with 89 points, including a team-high 35 goals and 54 assists. He also built a reputation as the veteran who knows how to calm his players down when they’re in a tense situation.

“He’s one of those guys that likes to have fun in the locker room as well. So, when you’re nervous or anything, he’ll calm you down and he’ll have a laugh or a joke with you,” said linemate Branden Parkhouse. “It’s always nice to have that alongside his skill and his talent.”

His skill is undeniable. One of the speediest skaters on an up-tempo hockey team, Canter is capable of burning defenders or getting open in a crowd.

“You can pretty much find him anywhere on the ice. He’s in the right place at the right time,” Parkhouse said. “On top of that, he’s a digger and he can snipe, too. He likes to shoot that puck, and I know that if I get him the puck in the middle, nine times out of 10 it’ll end up pretty good.”

Of course, that works out for all of his linemates in the end. Parkhouse finished second on the team in regular season points with 85 (27 goals, 58 assists) while Boyle added 52 (25 goals, 27 assists). The three are also the leading point scorers in the playoffs.

Canter said that his achievements this year did take him a little bit by surprise, but he was quick to credit his linemates for most of his success.

“Those two guys are the main reasons I have so many points. We have such great chemistry and work well together,” he said.

That chemistry might be a bit of a surprise for Bighorns fans who remember Canter from the previous season.

He was a star on the roster for Fort Vancouver, Wash. in NorPac’s Pacific Division. Canter had 75 points for the Pioneers, good for second on the team, as they quickly climbed the standings and headed into the NorPac finals against Helena.

Before they could get there, however, the team’s success was clouded by controversy. Management was accused of paying some of its players, risking the entire team’s collegiate eligibility.

Fort Vancouver’s head coach and owner were banned from USA Hockey, but the team was allowed to finish out the regular season and the playoffs. They ended up defeating the Bighorns in three straight games, including a 6-3 final at the Helena Ice Arena, for the Cascade Cup.

“We talked about it, but we didn’t really talk about the bad things that went through it,” Canter said about playing for the Pioneers last season. “It was just unfortunate because it was two people that offered to pay people money.

“We did get bad reputations, but that is all gone now.”

Canter said that he never took a dime and didn’t like being personified as a cheater.

And “after last year, I never thought I’d play in Helena,” he said. “Then some stuff went on over summer and I was looking for a place to play and Helena looked like the best fit.”

As Fort Vancouver swapped hockey leagues — they were eventually banned from the World Hockey Association this season after failing to secure travel arrangements — Canter made his new home in Helena, just another stop since leaving home at age 17 to play in Junior hockey.

Leaving before his senior year in high school was hard, but Canter had his time to adjust.

“It was a lot tougher than I expected, and probably for the first month it was tough being away from home,” Canter said.

It didn’t stop him from getting success. He’s been to nationals twice, including in March when the Bighorns competed at the USA Hockey Junior A Tier III tournament in Marlboro, Mass., and already won a NorPac championship. He’s close to achieving that goal again as the Bighorns host Seattle Friday in game three of the finals. Helena leads 2-0 in the best-of-five series.

Canter’s also made a number of friends along the way, including a few he might not have expected.

“I think the (other players) were drawn to him right away,” said Bighorns head coach Scott Cunningham. “Me, on the other hand, it took me a little while to figure him out. He’s a pretty quiet kid and I don’t suppose I’m the easiest guy to talk to.

“The last couple of months he’s loosened up.”

Canter was even in on an April Fools’ Day prank with his coach.

Canter and captain Justin Crosby tried to pull one on Cunningham by hiding his skates, warmups and stick from the coaches’ dressing room and swapping the gear with the costume of the team’s mascot, Billy Bighorn.

When one of the workers at the rink filled Cunningham in on the prank, he pulled another one on the team with the help of Canter. Pretending to be extremely upset — like only a hockey coach could overreact — Cunningham lined his team up along the red line for conditioning drills and began screaming at the top of his lungs.

He demanded that the culprit come forward, and when Canter slowly raised his hand, Cunningham kicked him off the ice and off the team. He even threw his stick at his star player as he sulked off the ice.

“Thank God I missed,” Cunningham said.

The coach followed him to the locker room, and when they both reemerged, Canter smiled to his teammates and yelled: “April Fools!”

“He’s a pretty special kid,” Cunningham said. “I think that says it all, he doesn’t look for attention but he draws it.”

He’ll hope to gain a little more as he heads to Massachussetts in the fall to play for Division III Fitchburg State, a college just outside of Boston.

Canter hopes to study biotechnology and biomedical engineering. Still, he said nothing could have replaced what he has been through the last three years.

“I think I’ve grown more in the last three years than I ever will,” he said. “They have been the best of my life, and I think no school or anything will every teach me what I learned playing Juniors.”