Scott Burt lends veteran presence to Aces

July 31, 2008 - ECHL (ECHL)
Alaska Aces News Release


ANCHORAGE, Alaska - The Alaska Aces have agreed to terms with veteran forward Scott Burt for the 2008-09 season.

After seven years as a fixture in the Idaho lineup, including two Kelly Cup titles and two other finals appearances in the old West Coast Hockey League, the 31-year-old Burt signed in Utah last year and scored a career-high 60 points on 27 goals and 33 assists, helping lead the Grizzlies to the conference finals a year after the team failed to even qualify for the playoffs. Burt's 2007-08 season also included a career-high 144 minutes in penalties and his first ever American Hockey League appearance for Bridgeport, Utah's AHL affiliate.

After scoring 41 goals in his final year in juniors back in 1997-98, Burt played spent two seasons in the ECHL (one in Toledo, one in Wheeling) before joining the Steelheads in 2000 and helping the club reach the Taylor Cup Finals in the WCHL that year. Three years later, having returned to the ECHL when Idaho was absorbed into the league (along with Alaska), Burt scored twice and assisted on two other goals as the Steelheads won the 2004 Kelly Cup. In 2007, he scored the tie-breaking, game-winning goal shorthanded in the third period to beat the Aces 3-2 in Game Five of the conference finals and end Alaska's quest to repeat as league champions. He also forced overtime in Game Two in Anchorage with the tying goal at 9:20 of the third period, a game the Steelies eventually won in OT. He ranks first on Idaho's all-time list for career games played (403) and third in goals (111). Only once in his 11 years as a pro (Wheeling) has Burt played on a club that failed to advance to postseason play.

"The importance of leadership cannot be understated in our business," said Alaska head coach Keith McCambridge. "With Scott Burt, any potential problems in that area become null and void. He's a proven winner and a natural-born leader whom I will depend on both on and off the ice this season."

Alaska plays host to a pair of pre-season games against the South Carolina Stingrays October 8-9 at 7:15 p.m. Both games will be broadcast live on the flagship home of Aces hockey, KFQD 750 AM, with coverage beginning 15 minutes prior to the opening face-off. The Alaska Aces open the 2008-09 regular season at home against Las Vegas October 17-18, also at 7:15 p.m.



ECHL Stories from July 31, 2008


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