Tomas
Jurco of the Saint John Sea Dogs has experienced a lot of success this past
season. He was a key part of the Sea Dogs tying the QMJHL record for wins in a
season. He also helped the Sea Dogs win the Memorial Cup, a win that finally
brought a Memorial Cup championship to the Maritimes. On top of the
championship season, Jurco also got drafted by the Detroit Red Wings in the
second round of the NHL draft (35th overall).
Jurco
finished the 2010-11 QMJHL season with 31 goals and 25 assists. In the
playoffs, Jurco finished with six goals and 12 assists in 19 games. He finished
the Memorial Cup with four goals and one assist in four games.
This
year Jurco hopes that the thrill of the Memorial Cup can help motivate himself
as well as his teammates to go for a repeat of last year. It will be a
challenge though, because Jurco and his teammates have to step up their game
because of some key injuries. The Sea Dogs are missing players like Stanislav
Galiev, and Ryan Tesink.
Jurco’s
season is going the way he wants it to. He is getting a lot of points and he
hopes his play will earn himself a spot with the Red Wings next season.
“So
far it’s a good season, it got off to a slow start because a lot of people were
missing.”
He
did suffer a set back however, with the plane crash that happened in Russia.
Being a Slovakian born player, he was really upset by the death of Pavol
Demitra. Jurco had to fly to Detroit the next day for training camp.
“It
was such a weird feeling, I am kind of afraid to fly now.”
