March 10-16 CBJ Prospect Week in Review

Greeting Jackets fans! Fresh off my State of the Prospect Pool post from last week I’m back with the week in review.

As always we start off in Springfield. The Falcons would pick up two new players in separate deals this past week acquiring forwards Spencer Machacek and Matthew Ford. Machacek was acquired on Sunday from the Winnipeg Jets for Tomas Kubalik. This is a “change of scenery” trade for both players especially with Kubalik seemingly passed by other prospects (even though you have to note that only centers have been injured and Tomas plays wing). It later came out through a puck rakers blog that Tomas actually requested the trade and Blue Jackets General Manager Jarmo Kekalainen honored that quickly. Here’s Hockeyprospectus’ Corey Pronman with his take on Spencer from his Winnipeg top 10 last summer: he was the Jets 8th best prospect. The birds would also make a deal with Philadelphia by acquiring Matthew Ford for future considerations meaning we got Matthew for…I have no idea. Some said it could be a draft pick, it could be a player, no one was really sure. Matthew is on twitter and you can follow him at @Frdy11. The Falcons would also add giant defenseman Thomas Larkin when he signed an ATO after Colgate was eliminated last week and Thomas finished his collegiate career.

The Falcons continued their recent struggles going 0-1-1-1 this week. Starting off with a rare Tuesday game, the Birds would fall to Bridgeport 3-2 with one goal coming from an expected source and the other from an unexpected source. After a scoreless first, the Falcons trailed 1-0 after an early Sound Tigers goal. It was then that defenseman Will Weber would intercept a clearing attempt and then blast a shot past Sound Tigers goaltender Rick DiPietro (yeah that Rick DiPietro) for Will’s first pro goal/point. After El Nino struck to make it 2-1 Tigers, the Falcons would score on the power play. Jonathan Audy-Marchessault scored when DiPietro would get a piece of Cody Goloubef’s point shot and JAM snapped the rebound over Dipietro’s stick. Bridgeport would score late in the third to clinch the victory. Curtis McElhinney had 36 saves in the loss.

Friday night it would be off to Providence to begin a home and home with the Bruins. Game one continued the Falcons woes with a 3-2 shootout loss. The Falcons would spot the Bruins a 2-0 lead and not score until the third period. Ryan Craig finally got the Falcons on the board with his 17th goal of the season (56th all time with the Falcons) when he tapped in a Trent Vogelhuber cross crease pass. Late in the third period, with McElhinney pulled, Ryan Russell took a Nick Holden pass, sliced through the middle and slid the puck past Svedberg. In the skills competition (seen a lot of those lately haven’t we folks?) the Bruins would score the only goal when Jamie Tardif would score in the third round. McElhinney would make 25 saves in the 3-2 shootout loss stopping four of five in the shootout. Saturday in the rematch, the Falcons would score first when Dalton Smith’s shot was stopped but Nathan Moon who was driving to the net banged home the rebound for his second of the season. The Bruins would score the next two before the fresh from Columbus Nick Drazenovic would strike. With the Falcons working off a cycle, Ryan Russell found Nick in the slot and snapped it past Svedberg for his 17th of the season. The Bruins scored the next three including an empty net goal to hand the Falcons their fifth straight loss. Paul Dainton would make 30 saves in the 5-2 loss. Russell and Ryan Craig would share the scoring lead each with a goal and an assist.

In Evansville the IceMen would go 1-1-0-1  last week with Oliver Gabriel scoring his third goal of the season in Saturday’s 4-2 win over Kalamazoo. Oliver would be held scoreless in Evansville’s other two games.

Oscar Dansk-Erie Otters (OHL)
Final Regular Season Stats 43GP 11-23-3-3 4.11GAA .888Sv%
Oscar and the Otters would close out the regular season with three last games last week going 1-1-1. Starting off on Wednesday against London, Oscar would make 22 saves in a 3-1 loss. Friday night to start a home and home against Guelph, Oscar would leave the game for a few minutes and return but I never heard what happened. Oscar made 27 saves in a 2-1 overtime loss. In the rematch on Saturday, Oscar stopped 25 of 29 in a 5-4 regular season finale. It was another rough year in Erie with the Otters winning 19 games which is up from 10 last season. Oscar should be back in Erie next season as the team’s number one splitting time with draft eligible back up Devin Williams.

Josh Anderson-London Knights (OHL)
Season Stats 67GP 23-24-47 +10 77PIM
The Knights opened last week with a stinker losing 8-1 with Josh being one of the few Knights that was a -1. Wednesday night it’d be off to Erie where Josh would pick up two assists in the Knights 3-1 win over the Otters and was named second star. Saturday would be a first round playoff preview as the Knights were off to Michigan to face the Saginaw Spirit. Josh would be held scoreless in the 4-3 overtime victory. The Knights have one game left and they have already clinched first overall in the OHL in what is turning out to be a season of career highs for Josh.

Boone Jenner-Oshawa Generals (OHL)
Season Stats 56GP 45-37-82 +23 58PIM
Boone and the Generals opened last week with their last game ever in Brampton. Boone was held scoreless in the 4-1 Generals win. Wednesday, the Generals would be off to Belleville to face the Bulls for the 11th time this season. Jenner would score to make the game 1-0 with his 45th of the season when Michael Dal Colle’s shot would rebound to Boone and from an odd angle Boone potted the goal. The game ended in a 5-2 loss. Friday night against bottom feeding Ottawa, Oshawa’s coach would rest Boone and some of the Generals top players including first round picks Tyler Biggs and Scott Laughton. The Gens would win the game 6-5 in a shootout. The Generals have one game left on Sunday against Sudbury. The results of the OHL’s Eastern Conference coaches poll came out this week with Boone winning two categories and finishing second in another. Boone won “Hardest Worker” for the second year in a row, “Best on Faceoffs” after finishing second last year and finished second in “Best Bodychecker”.

Gianluca Curcuruto-Plymouth Whalers (OHL)
Season Stats 66GP 9-36-45 +35 32PIM
Gianluca opened last week against in-state rival Saginaw Spirit. Gianluca picked up an assist on Garret Meurs goal when he found Stefan Noesen with an outlet pass and Stefan would find Meurs in the slot to make 2-2. Plymouth continued its hot streak winning 7-5. Wednesday it’d be a game against the Chin’s old team the Soo Greyhounds. Gianluca picked up an assist on Mitchell Heard’s goal that made the game 5-0 (sorry folks the video seems odd to me – it’s only missing the Benny Hill music). Gianluca would be held scoreless in an overtime win over Windsor on Saturday. Gianluca and the Whalers have one game on Sunday and Gianluca is leading the Whalers defensemen in scoring.

Lukas Sedlak-Chicoutimi Sagueneens (QMJHL)
Final Regular Season Stats 48GP 15-19-34 +1 64PIM
The Sagueneens would play their last two games of the season with Lukas missing a 3-0 win over Drummondville because of a one game suspension due to a “dangerous hit” (no video or press release for one game suspensions). Lukas returned and picked up his eighth multipoint game with  two assists in a 5-0 win over Victoriaville, winning 13 of 20 faceoffs. The Sagueneens are locked into 12th place in the QMJHL meaning they’ll face whoever finishes fifth.

Quickly in non scoring NCAA prospect updates, TJ Tynan was held off the scoresheet in the Irish’s sweep of Bowling Green. The Irish will have to wait to find out who’ll they’ll face in the next round until after game three of the Miami-Michigan State series. If Sparty wins, Notre Dame will be the highest remaining seed and they’ll play Michigan. Seth Ambroz and Mike Reilly would be held scoreless in the Gophers sweep of Bemidji state. As for next week at the Final Five, Minnesota will have a bye.

Martin Ouellette-Maine (Hockey East)
Final Season Stats 30GP 9-12-8 2.42GAA .917Sv% 2SO 0-3-3 2PIM
Martin and the Black Bears would run into the buzzsaw that is the UMass-Lowell – winners of nine of their last 10. Starting on Thursday, Martin made 32 saves in the 4-2 loss. In the rematch, the Bears would scare the Riverhawks with the Hawks needing overtime to complete the sweep. Martin was solid making 35 saves in the loss. Martin will return to Orono next season for his senior year as the Black Bears number one goalie.

Kevin Lynch-Michigan (CCHA)
Season Stats 38GP 10-14-24 44PIM
Kevin and Wolverines would face off against the number three seed in the CCHA tournament: Western Michigan. The red hot Wolverines (that hurt to write; sorry Buckeye fans) winners of six straight made it eight as they swept the Broncos. Friday night Kevin would help open the scoring when he’d find Phil DiGiuseppe with a cross crease pass to make it 1-0. The Wolverines would win game one 4-3. Saturday night, Kevin would again open the scoring when he’d take a Jon Merrill outlet pass and be off to the races firing a laser past Frank “The Big” Slubowski for his 10th of the season. The Wolverines would win the game 5-1 moving onto to play at the Joe. For the Wolverines to make the NCAA Tournament for a 23rd straight year they have to win the CCHA tournament. As for next week, it’s all in who wins game three of Miami and Michigan State for next weeks opponent.

Drew Olson-Minnesota-Duluth
Final Regular Season Stats 38GP 1-6-7 28PIM
Final Career Stats 147GP 3-18-21 111PIM
Drew saw his collegiate career ended when the Bulldogs were swept by Wisconsin with Drew being held scoreless in Friday’s 3-1 loss and Saturday’s 4-1 loss. Drew leaves Duluth with a National Championship ring from 2011. The defenseman could join Springfield if he signs an ATO – hopefully we’ll have an update on that next week.

In Sweden, Daniel Zaar’s time with BIK would come to an end as they finished second for a chance to play to move up. Daniel was BIK’s third leading scorer picking up 3 points in six games with two goals and an assist. After the game on Monday, the team that loaned Daniel to BIK, Rogle, recalled him but Daniel would only dress for the J20 team in its three goal loss to SSK. Speaking of SSK, Anton Forsberg and the boys are off to a rough start first losing to Leksands 3-1 with Anton making 30 saves in the loss. Saturday night it would be a prospect matchup as Rogle and Sodertalje would get together with Rogle picking up a 4-1 victory. Daniel wouldn’t dress for Rogle while Anton would take the loss stopping 16 of 19 with the team allowing an empty net goal.

As for next week, we’ll have the tail end of the OHL season and the first updates on the CHL playoffs and an update on the NCAA conference tournaments. See you then!