Witzke Achieves Historic Milestone In Bruins History

 

Both the Power Dodge Estevan Bruins and defenceman Johnny Witzke have enjoyed tremendous success on the ice over the defenceman’s three seasons with the black-and-gold.

The team has won three straight division titles and after making the league final last season, they are about to play in their third consecutive semi-final round when they begin a Best-of-7 series against the Melfort Mustangs on March 29th.

And during the team’s remarkable come-from-behind series victory over the Humboldt Broncos, the blueliner from Bismarck, North Dakota reached an historic career milestone in the club’s franchise history.

Witzke scored two points (1G, 1A) in the Bruins 4-1 victory over Humboldt on the road in Game 6. With those two points, Witzke broke a tie with Zach Douglas (240 games, 2012-16) to become the second highest scoring defenceman in Bruins history.

Witzke currently sits with a combined 112 points (regular season and playoffs) over his three seasons with the Bruins. Of that total, Witzke tallied 99 points (26G, 73A) in 162 regular season games. With more playoff games to go, Witzke has added 13 points (4G, 9A) in 32 playoff games.

The only defenceman ahead of Witzke in scoring is the legendary Dale “Red” Hoganson who scored 202 points in 275 games with the Bruins from 1964-1969. After Hoganson’s last season with the Bruins, he went on to play in the National Hockey League with the Los Angeles Kings. Hoganson finished with 90 points in 343 NHL games and added 191 points in 378 WHA games over 13 seasons.

Witzke joined the Bruins for the start of the 2016/17 season as a highly-touted prospect who scored 44 points (14G, 30A) in 27 regular season games with Bismarck High in the USHS-ND.

While Witzke has been one of the most productive players for the Bruins during the last three seasons, he has also become one of the most popular players among fans in club history. Witzke is well-regarded for his impact in the community and with the young hockey players of Estevan and area, and the combination of his on-ice/off-ice impact will result in Johnny becoming one of the most memorable players to wear the Bruins ‘B’ on his chest for a long time.

Following his final season, which Witzke and Estevan hopes is sometime in late May in Brooks, Alberta for the National Championship, Witzke plans to continue his playing career in the NCAA ranks.

While Witzke has not formally committed to a school at this time, he has garnered plenty of interest and the longer the Bruins playoff run goes, the longer the list of schools wanting Estevan’s version of ‘Johnny Hockey’ is expected to grow.