By Trevor Redden

‘Best time of my life’: Montgomery reflects on 300 games

Nov 20, 2018 | 11:00 AM

On Tuesday night, Prince Albert Raider forward Sean Montgomery will join Brett Novak, Shane Zulyniak, and Brandon Herrod as the only players to ever play 300 Western Hockey League games with the club.

Drafted in the sixth round of the 2013 draft, Montgomery cracked the lineup as a 16-year-old in the 2014-15 season and has been a mainstay ever since. While the team around him has had a lot of changes in that time, the Calgary native feels grateful for all the support he’s received.

“Obviously I’m pretty excited about it. Everybody that’s been here since I’ve been here has been great,” Montgomery said. “There’s not many left now as we’ve had some turnover, but it’s just surreal that I’m still here for 300 and I’m pretty proud of that. I just want to thank everybody here for making it the best time of my life since I’ve been here.”

Asked to recall any specific teammates who have been influential on his career, Montgomery singled out Josh Morrissey and Sawyer Lange from his rookie season, and Jordan Tkatch as somebody who showed him the right way to approach the game.

“[He] was really good and a really good guy too. He got it, he knew how to prepare and how to keep going, and I think he helped a lot,” he said.

SIGA

SIGA and Northern Lights Casino main sponsors of the 31st PAGC Fine Arts Festival

2h ago

Workplace incident

City of Prince Albert pleads guilty to workplace safety violation, handed fines

4h ago

Lighting it up

P.A.'s Zablocki leads Regina to victory on Day 4 at Esso Cup

Apr 24, 2024

Since making his Raider debut, Montgomery played in all but 10 regular season games, and attributes much of that longevity to what he learned from those before him.

“I think the big thing about it is once you’re here you’ve got to learn how to stay here. You have to learn how to bring it every day, and some of those guys really helped a lot with that,” he said.

Not only is Montgomery showing his staying power with the Raiders, he’s also on pace to smash all of his previous single-season totals.

The forward set a career high with 29 points as a 19-year-old last season and topped out at 13 goals in 2016-17. Through just 21 games this year, Montgomery already has 11 goals and 25 points, good for second on the team behind line mate Brett Leason, putting him on pace for new high marks in every category.

“I’ve played with some good line mates this year and I think that’s helped, so I can’t complain,” Montgomery said. “Me and Brett played together last year which definitely helped, and we’ll just look to keep building on that.”

Montgomery and the Raiders ride a 13-game winning streak into tonight’s contest against the visiting Lethbridge Hurricanes, who currently sit in fourth place in the Central Division.

This is the last home game until Dec 8, as the Raiders hit the road for seven games beginning Friday night in Medicine Hat.

Trevor.redden@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @Trevor_Redden