Training Camp Continues Saturday Night
Moose Jaw Warrior fans got a pretty good idea of why the team selected Luka Burzan with the sixth overall pick in the 2015 WHL Bantam Draft on Saturday.
The Tribe opened main camp at Mosaic Place on Saturday with two scrimmages and the Surrey, BC native put on a show late in the afternoon scrimmage, scoring three times in three minutes.
After having chances throughout rookie camp and the first scrimmage on Saturday, Burzan found his scoring touch on a pair of back-to-back breakaways, beating goalie Mitchell Adamyk low blocker with both shots.
He completed the hat trick with a penalty shot, again going low blocker on Adamyk.
“It felt great, the first two games, I had a lot of chances, but just wasn’t burying the puck,” said Burzan. “This game, a couple of breakaways, nice passes from my teammates and just fortunate to put the puck in the net.
“Usually I try to shoot low blocker, I scored a lot of goals there this season,” added Burzan, who posted 80 goals and 131 points with the North Shore Winter Club last season.
Burzan, Brayden Watts and Blake Bargar showed some strong chemistry during the scrimmage as they combined for six of Team Red’s seven goals in a 7-3 win over Team Grey.
“They’re great players, they’re really smart players and we have a lot of good chemistry together,” said Burzan. “We move the puck well, got a lot of chances today and put the puck in the net.”
Taking part in his first training camp with the Warriors, Burzan said he’s starting to feel more comfortable on the ice, especially now with the pace picking up and the veterans in the fold.
“Rookie camp, I felt I did okay, could have played better, but these last two games, I felt like I’ve started getting used to the pace and the older guys,” said Burzan.
Burzan’s fellow first round pick from 2015, Jett Woo, has also looked strong since main camp opened up this weekend. The steady defenceman, who was taken fourth overall, laid two big open ice hits during the first scrimmage and scored a goal.
He played a solid game in the second scrimmage as well.
Another 2015 draft pick, goalie Adam Evanoff, who was selected in the tenth round by the Warriors, put together a strong performance between the pipes in the win for Red, making 35 saves.
“I was a bit nervous going into it, but as the game went on, got some more shots and felt more comfortable and felt good,” said Evanoff. “Once you make some saves, it gets a bit easier, you get a lot of confidence in yourself.”
Evanoff has had a busy past couple of days as he played in two rookie camp games on Friday, had a goalie session on Saturday morning and then played the scrimmage. He said he’s happy with how he’s played over the course of training camp so far.
“In prospects camp, I wasn’t too good, I didn’t play my best, so now I’m just showing them what I can do and that’s about it,” said Evanoff.
The Penticton, BC native has two pretty good goalies in front of him on the Warriors’ depth chart with Zach Sawchenko and Brody Willms returning this season. The 15-year-old Evanoff said he’s tried to learn from both goalies.
“They’ve told me to just be patient, don’t overplay everything and I’ll be fine,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to making the Black and White game and just keep playing how I’ve been playing.”
Some veterans have really stood out in the two main camp scrimmages so far with Jayden Halbgewachs scoring in both games and buzzing constantly in the offensive zone. Noah Gregor has shown the skill that allowed him to crack the team as a 16-year-old last year, showing that his injury plagued rookie season is behind him.
Jesse Shynkaruk was always around the puck during the second game of the scrimmage and generated a number of chances.
The Warriors will be back on the ice on Sunday morning at 10:00am for another scrimmage. The annual Black and White intersquad game goes at 4:00pm to wrap up camp.
