Nolan Burke is on the verge of making history. With six games left in the regular season, the Sarnia Sting forward is just one goal shy of becoming the first Peterborough native in over 40 years to score 50 goals in an Ontario Hockey League (OHL) season and only seven goals away from setting the record for most goals scored in a season by a Peterborough born player.
The last player to accomplish this feat was Jeff Larmer, back in the 1981-82 OHL season, when he scored 51 goals with the Kitchener Rangers. Larmer had 54 goals with the Rangers the year prior, during the 1980-81 season.
Jeff’s brother Steve also cracked 50 in 1980-81, putting up 55 goals with the Niagara Falls Flyers, a mark that still stands as the record for most goals scored in a season by a Peterborough native.
The closest anyone from Peterborough has ever gotten to the 50-goal plateau since then was Owen Tippett who had 44 goals with the Mississauga Steelheads during the 2016-17 campaign. Before that, Doug Evans was five away when he put up 45 while playing with the Peterborough Petes in 1983-84.
Besides the Larmers, the only other Peterborough born player to hit 50 goals in a season is Doug Gibson. Gibson had two back-to-back 50 goal seasons while playing for the Petes in the 70’s, when the league was known as the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA), scoring 51 goals in 1971-72 and then 52 in 1972-73.
Although Mickey Redmond, Bob Errey, Dave Roche and Corey Perry are not Peterborough born, they did play most of their minor hockey here and should be mentioned. Redmond had 51 goals with the Petes in 1966-67, Errey scored 53 as a Pete in 1982-83, Roche notched 55 with the Windsor Spitfires during the 1994-95 season, while Perry came up three short from reaching 50 when he scored 47 as a member of the London Knights in 2004-05.
Other than Gibson and the Larmer brothers, no other Peterborough native has ever cracked the 50-goal mark, which would make Nolan Burke just the fourth player in our city’s history to accomplish this milestone.
Burke’s next game is tomorrow night when the Sting travel to Guelph to face the Storm.
(Written by: Scott Arnold)
