Wes Berg recently entered an elite class of Benilde-St. Margaret’s hockey players as only one of 26 at BSM to score 100 points in one season. About halfway through the season, Berg looks to continue to grow his potential and achieve more milestones for the BSM hockey team.

Berg started playing hockey at the age of four and has been skating ever since. He grew up around hockey, crediting his family for his interest in the sport. “My dad played professional hockey…He got me a pair of skates, and I would skate during the intermissions of his games. He got me into hockey. I was born into it,” Berg said.

Berg is thankful for those he has surrounded himself with and those that have supported him throughout his hockey career. “I [would] like to thank my dad…my family, my coaches, and my teammates because I obviously couldn’t have done it without them. My dad’s my role model, and if it weren’t for him playing hockey, I don’t think I would have [grown] into the sport [like] I have,” Berg said.

Berg achieved his 100th point against Waconia on January 31st at the St. Louis Park Rec Center, with the final score ending as BSM 11 Waconia 0. “I got a pass from Ryan Baird, and I was in all-on goal and I just drifted on,” Berg said.

Coach Pauly, who has been coaching Benilde-St. Margaret’s hockey for over 30 years, has seen improvement in Berg. He joined the hockey team with strong skills to begin with, but Pauly noticed room for growth and improvement after a few adjustments. “I think the main improvement actually is an adjustment… to us and our style of play and all that stuff, and I have just seen him continue to get more comfortable… The truth is the first two or three weeks, he probably wasn’t putting up as many points as he was used to. I think a lot of it has [to do with getting] used to new players, new system, new coaches…I’ve seen him get more comfortable, and I think [he feels] freer to play his game,” coach Pauly said.

After scoring 100 points, Berg still has some more personal goals for the rest of the season. “I want to keep improving, keep scoring points, but I really just want to grow with my line weights even more and help out the team as much as I can as we gear up for class here soon… [The team] wants to win the rest of our games. We want to be ready for playoffs and we want to beat Wayzata and Edina,” Berg said.