Burke hits century mark again

It isn’t often that a player in the modern Western Hockey League heads into the month of February all but guaranteed to put up 100 points on the season, but that was most certainly the case for Moose Jaw Warriors forward Brayden Burke.

The 20-year-old left-winger had 97 points – 24 goals and 73 assists – at the end of January, the highest point total for a Moose Jaw Warrior at that point of the season since the high-scoring era of Theoren Fleury and Curtis Brown.

So when his first period goal against Kootenay on Feb. 10 gave him 27 for the season and 100 points on the year, it was a bit of a milestone.

“Obviously it’s nice to get right off the start there, it was a pretty nice pass from (Justin) Almeida and I pretty much just had to tap it in,” Burke said. “The team played well tonight, it was one of our best efforts in awhile, so getting that personal accolade was nice but it was great to get a win like that tonight.”

By the time the final whistle had blown, Burke had 28 goals and 102 points, good enough for second in the league behind Swift Current’s Glenn Gawdin. was the second time in his career Burke had hit the mark after his 27-82-109 showing in 2015-16 with the Lethbridge Hurricanes. He had 19 goals and 63 assists with the Tribe last season. come into every season just trying to play my best and create offense and do my thing on the ice, and the points will come themselves,” Burke said. “I’ve had some good stretches here where I’ve done really well and some others where I’ve had to work harder at it. It’s been a good learning curve throughout the season, but I’m happy getting there.” the third season in a row a member of the Warriors has hit 100 points -- Jayden Halbgewachs (50-51101) and Dryden Hunt (58-58-116) reached the mark the last two seasons. Interestingly enough, Burke isn’t alone -- with 18 games remaining in the season, Halbgewachs (51-43-94) will also almost certainly break the century mark, while forward Justin Almeida (3043-73) could take a run at it if he maintains his current scoring pace.