Hyvaa joulua, CBJ fans! It’s a light week as most of hockey was on Christmas break.
Starting off in Cleveland, the Monsters again welcomed the hottest team in the AHL, the Grand Rapids Griffins. On Friday night after a very early Griffins goal, Oliver Bjorkstrand scored his third goal in five games when he picked up the rebound of a Ryan Craig shot from in front. Early in the second, the Monsters earned a penalty shot…why, I’m not so sure from watching the highlights…but newly signed (PTO) Joe Devin took the shot and scored his first goal of the season. After another Griffins goal that made it 5-2, just 36 seconds later, Josh Anderson tipped in a Kerby Rychel shot from a scramble in front. Anton Forsberg made it just a tick into the second period after stopping only five of nine in the loss.
Saturday night went a lot better for the Monsters. Early in the first, Michael Chaput drove into the zone and passed to Anderson who sent a backhand pass to Daniel Zaar in front for his team leading ninth of the season. Later in the first, TJ Tynan gathered a Griffins clearing attempt and found Jamie Sifers at the point for his third of the season. After a Griffins goal in the second, the Monsters struck early in the third when Rychel pressured a Griffin and forced him to misplay the puck in front. Devin then was able to get the it past the Griffins goalie to make it 3-1 in 3-2 Monsters win that snapped the Griffins 15 game winning streak, (the third longest in league history that had tied at the time Jackets’ affiliate, Syracuse Crunch from 2007-08.) After the final whistle all hell broke loose as 5’8″ Andy Miele chose the wrong tree to cut down when he squared off against 6’3″ Anderson and Sifers and Rychel got involved. Also in the mix was Grand Rapids Tyler Bertuzzi (I am CBJProspects’ shock). In the win, Forsberg made 22 saves in his 11th win of the season.
Next week will be a good measuring stick as the Monsters will play two against the top team in the AHL, the Toronto Marlies.
Switching gears to the World Juniors, it was off to Finland for more practice and another pre-tournament game against tournament host, Finland. In a 3-2 win, Sonny Milano was the star when he again scored a goal and an assist. Days before the tournament, USA made cuts and sadly, the big guy Ryan Collins was sent home with some thinking to do. He was too one dimensional for what Team USA wanted on the back end. With Collins being sent home, this will be the first time since 1992 – and only the second time ever (the first was 40 years ago) – that the Gophers have no one playing at the World Juniors.
So, the three Jackets’ prospects playing in the tournament are also the last three first round picks. And, it was announced that Zach Werenski will serve as Team USA’s captain making him the second youngest captain ever (last year’s Jack Eichel is the youngest). Werenski is also the third ever Wolverine (Kevin Porter in ’06 & Erik Nystrom in ’03) to earn the honor.
In the tournament opener against Canada, the young Jackets were the stars. Starting off with the Canadians leading 1-0, off a faceoff win Sonny Milano got the puck and fired allowing Colin White to score to tie it. In the third, with the US on the power play, Zach took a pass from potential 2016 number one overall pick Auston Matthews, and fired a shot that “had eyes” as it curved through traffic to make it 2-1 and check out that goal celebration. Later with the US leading 3-2, Zach took a pass from Matthew Tkachuk and fired a shot that was stopped, but Matthews was right there to tap the puck past MacDonald for his first of the tournament.
As for Gabriel Carlsson and Sweden, first we have a translated interview from Swedish Hockey’s official twitter feed. In the Swede’s opening game against Switzerland, Gabriel picked up an assist on Rasmus Asplund’s goal to make it 5-1 in a 8-3 Sweden win.
In next week’s recap, there will be a take on all three prospects playing against one another, as they met in each team’s next game yesterday.
Oscar Dansk-Rogle BK (SHL)
Season Stats 23GP 8-14 2.60GAA .910Sv % 1SO
Oscar and Rogle got back into action and picked up a blowout victory over Orebro. In his 8th win of the season, Oscar made 28 saves in a 7-2 victory.
Vladislav Gavrikov-Lokomotiv (KHL)
Season Stats 29GP 3-3-6 +12 12PIM
One of the only leagues to play over Christmas was the KHL. First up was a game against Amur. In the first, out of a scramble in the slot, Ilya Lyubushkin got the puck and passed to Vladislav at the wall. Gavrikov then fired a shot for his first goal since early September and gave the Trains a 1-0 lead in a 4-1 win.
On Christmas Day, Lokomotiv took on Admiral. Late in the second, Vladislav was trailing the play and took a cross rink pass before skating and firing a shot from above the circle to make it 3-0 in a 3-0 win.
Elvis Merzlikins-HC Lugano (National League A)
Season Stats 30GP 18-8-2-1 .930Sv% 2.52GAA 1SO
Another two games, another two starts for Elvis. Starting off against ZSC, Elvis stopped 25 of 29 in a 4-2 loss. Up next against Davos, Elvis bounced back and made 28 saves in a 3-2 victory for his 18th win of the season. Since we talked about celebrations earlier, check out Elvis and the Lugano supporters postgame (this is why I love European hockey – never forget Anton Forsberg Gangam Style dancing postgame.)
On Boxing Day, the Panthers opened the annual Spengler Tournament that included current Monster Manny Malhotra on Team Canada. Elvis’ team allowed Adler Mannheim (the Eagles) to soar out to a 3-0 lead until, in the second, when it was all Cats. The team scored six straight to take a 6-3 lead in the tournament opener.
There you have it folks – a light week. As for next week, we’ll have more on the World Juniors along with updates from the CHL and NCAA as they get back into action.
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