ESTEVAN — Regardless of whether he’s playing for the Great North Estevan Bruins or the Estevan Innovex U18 AAA Bears, Gunner Moore has been hitting milestones this year.
The Carievale product, who turned 18 on Jan. 6, is in his third season with the Bears and serves as the club’s captain. Earlier this season, he became the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, passing Estevan hockey product Carter Onrait, who is a forward with the Bruins.
As of Jan. 7, Moore had recorded 50 goals and 76 assists for 126 points in 110 games with the Bears.
At the SJHL level, Moore has been called up a couple of times by the Bruins this season. He recorded his first SJHL point in a game against the La Ronge Ice Wolves in November and notched his first SJHL goal in a 3-1 victory over the Weyburn Red Wings on Jan. 3.
“I think I’ve been able to show my skill and speed, everything that I do well,” Moore told SaskToday. “It was fun to play against bigger, stronger guys. The pace of the SJHL is a lot faster … and I think I held up well.”
Moore said it was an “unreal” feeling to record his first SJHL point. As for his first SJHL goal, he said he used the opposing defenceman as a screen, took a shot and scored. Doing it in front of the hometown crowd added to the special moment.
“My parents and grandparents are usually at my Bears’ games, but when I played with the Bruins against Weyburn and I scored, it was the perfect game to score, because I had both sides of my family’s grandparents there, and my uncles and aunties, and there were quite a few people there. I want to say there were 10 or 12 family members there,” said Moore, who was the Bruins’ first-round pick in the 2023 SJHL Draft.
When he’s been called up, Moore said the Bruins’ players and coaches have made him feel welcome.
“They’re great coaches. They know what they’re doing and they love to help me. The guys have been great,” he said. “They have a lot of good leaders in that room, and a lot of guys with a lot of experience. They make me feel right at home and I love getting called up to play with them.”
However, his main focus this season has been on the Bears. He currently sits fourth in the Saskatchewan Male AAA Hockey League scoring race with 15 goals and 34 assists for 49 points in 27 games. The Bears sit fifth in the league standings with a 14-10-1-2 record, good for 31 points.
The Bears also finished second at the inaugural Saskatchewan Hockey Classic in Saskatoon over the Christmas break, falling 3-1 in the final against the Saskatoon Blazers.
“To head up to that tournament was good. We had a lot of good competition; the games were good. It was run pretty well. We ended up making it to the final, but the last game was a back-and-forth game, and we just had a couple of bounces that didn’t go our way and ended up losing that game. But overall, it was a really good experience,” Moore said. “It was a new tournament this year, so it should be good next year as well for the other guys.”
Moore believes that experience will give the team momentum entering the post-Christmas portion of the schedule.
“In the second half, we just want to keep playing our game and keep working hard,” he said.
Being the Bears’ all-time leading scorer is a special achievement, Moore said. While he didn’t say much to Onrait about breaking the record, Moore noted he heard a few Bruins players joking with Onrait about it, which he said was “pretty funny.”
The Bears have had great players and people since he joined the team, Moore said, and he looks forward to what lies ahead.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better group of guys than all three of these teams,” he said.
