Gary Butler, a prolific scorer with the Regina Pats who won an NCAA hockey championship with the University of Michigan in 1964, died Nov 8 at age 85.

“He could score,” said Gord Wilkie, who grew up playing on Regina’s outdoor rinks with Butler before they advanced to the Pats and Michigan, where Wilkie was the captain and Butler an assistant. “He was strong and he could skate, too.

“He had a few faults as a player. He didn’t like back-checking too much and sometimes in the corners of the rink you couldn’t find him. I said to him, ‘How come you don’t go in the corners or back-check?’ He said, ‘You can’t score from the corners and you can’t score from your own end.'”

Butler played five Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League seasons with the Pats from 1956-61, scoring 163 goals with 133 as

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