MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- The Moose Jaw Warriors might not have had much to play for as a team over the final month of the season, but that didn’t keep forward Jagger Firkus from racking up the points.
Finding himself in a race to the finish to claim the Bob Clarke Trophy as the Western Hockey League’s top scorer, the 19-year-old forward put together a spectacular showing through the final few weeks of the season, and in the end, the league took notice.
Not only did Firkus win the WHL scoring race, he’s also the WHL’s Player of the Month for March, claiming the prestigious honour for the first time in his career.
The Seattle Kraken prospect led all scorers with 16 goals and 27 points and a plus-12 plus-minus through 12 games through the past month. All told, Firkus had eight multi-point games and recorded his fifth and sixth hat tricks of the season -- the first coming in the Warriors’ 6-3 win over the Saskatoon Blades on Mar. 16 and the second in the season-finale against the Regina Pats.
Firkus also had five points in the win over Regina, giving him 14 points in the final four games of the season to finish with 61 goals and 126 points in 63 games. That was good enough to win the WHL scoring title by three points over Prince George’s Zac Funk in addition to finishing first overall in scoring in the entire Canadian Hockey League.
Firkus was originally selected by the Warriors in the fourth round, 82nd overall in the 2019 Prospects Draft and after a stellar 2021-22 campaign was selected in the second round, 35th overall by the Kraken in the 2022 NHL Draft.
For his career, Firkus has skated in 230 WHL regular season games with 144 goals and 166 assists for 310 points.
It’s the second straight time a Moose Jaw player has received the Player of the Month Award after Atley Calvert received the honour for the month of February, also putting up 27 points in 12 games.
The Warriors are back on the ice for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference quarter-final on Wednesday night when they travel to Brandon to face the Wheat Kings. Game time is 6 p.m. from the Keystone Centre in Brandon.
