Game On Magazine - April 2017 Game on Preview Edition | Page 68

D u r a c o ’ s W H L P l ay e r O F T H E M O N T H
Ready
to make
the jump
to the
NHL
By Carter Brooks Photos by
Bruce Fedyck and Brian Liesse/
Seattle Thunderbirds
Keegan Kolesar is set
to take the biggest step
of his hockey life. A big,
strong, humble young man
from Winnipeg, Kolesar is
ready to take his 2017 WHL
championship and run with it.
During the past two WHL
playoffs, Kolesar’s Seattle
Thunderbirds finished second
and first overall, earning the
Ed Chynoweth Cup this past
season as league champions.
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Although hockey is very
much a team sport, it is
hard to look past Kolesar’s
contributions.
Following a stellar 2015-16
season in which he amassed
30 goals, 61 points and 107
penalty minutes
in 64 games, the
now 20-year-old
stepped up his
game in 2016-
17 with another
60-point, 100
penalty minute season,
in 10 fewer games.
But it wasn’t necessarily
the regular season where
Kolesar’s dominance shone
through – it was in Seattle’s
run to the Memorial Cup.
Outscoring Regina’s Sam
Steel – who finished atop
league scoring with 131
regular season points –
Kolesar led the WHL playoffs
in points and penalty
minutes this past spring.
“I’m really not much of a
points scorer,” Kolesar said,
humbly. “I love scoring goals,
but I’ve never been, by any
means, the guy who leads
the league in playoff scoring.
But it was really good for
me and for a lot of my
teammates who were scoring
like they haven’t before. We
built ourselves an armour of
confidence and we used that
for our run.”