Welcome back to our weekly recap of the goings on in Blue Jackets Prospects land.
It was a busy week in Springfield as the Falcons played three games and brought home a tally of 2-1 with one win being by shootout. First on Thursday, the Falcons would be off to Glen Falls, New York for a game against the Phantoms. In the 2-1 loss, Lukas Sedlak scored his third goal of the season. Jeremy Smith came up with 28 saves in the game.
On Friday, the Hartford Wolfpack would come to town (so glad the Connecticut FailWhale is gone) and the Falcons snapped a three game losing streak with a 3-2 shootout win. At first, the Falcons trailed 1-0 off a Dylan McIlrath goal. Just under two minutes later, Lukas Sedlak struck again when Oscar Lindberg tried to get fancy and Lukas stole the puck going off on a two on one and snapping a shot over the goalie’s shoulder. Midway through the second, Andrew Joudrey would start and finish a play getting the puck to Frederic St Denis who got the puck to Alex Aleardi who drove to the net. Aleardi passed over to Joudrey who finished the play for his first of the season. Andrew Rowe would score late in the second to tie it. The game would go to a shootout with Ilari Melart shooting first (yes, you read that right) and missing. Sean Collins would shoot second, also missing. In the third round, Alex Aleardi, who had multiple chances all night, scored on a backhand but Andrew Rowe would answer to tie it. Jonathan Marchessault shot next, snapping a shot over the goalie’s shoulder to make it 2-1 in the shootout. Mike McKenna stopped the final shot bringing his tally to turning away four of five in the shootout and stopping 22 of 24 in the game.
Saturday night was the rematch with the Falcons picking up the win. Cody Bass scored his first of the season when a Pack player would mishandle the puck and Bass went off on a breakaway snapping a shot to make it 1-0. 42 seconds into the second, with the Wolfpack on a power play, Sean Collins would disrupt a pass setting Jake Hansen off on a breakaway for his fourth goal of the season and league leading third shorthanded goal. That tally also ties a Falcons season record. Hartford would score late in the second to make it 2-1 but the Falcons would answer by scoring another shorty, this time with Hansen setting up Darryl Boyce to make it 3-1. Jeremy Smith made 22 saves in the 3-2 win – his fourth win of the season.
Oscar Dansk-Erie Otters (OHL)
Season Stats 12GP 10-1-1 1.75GAA .921Sv% 2SO
A light week for the Otters with the team doing something it hadn’t done in a long time. With the help of its 10 game win streak, the Otters found their way into the BMO CHL top 10 rankings for the first time since October 8th 2002 – they are sitting at 5th. Oscar also earned some individual accolades in the form of some hardware this weekend – he was named the Vaughn OHL Goaltender of the Month for going 8-0 with a 1.75GAA and a .921 save percentage and two shutouts. Devin Williams started Friday picking up his second shutout in a row with a 28 save shutout of Niagara giving the Otters a franchise record 11 wins in a row. The streak was snapped on Sunday with the Otters falling 6-2 to the London Knights – Oscar making 33 saves in the loss.
Josh Anderson-London Knights (OHL)
Season Stats 15GP 7-8-15 +4 32PIM
The Knights were another team with a light week – only playing two games on Friday. The Knights welcomed the Sudbury Wolves to Budweiser Centre with Josh having another good game – picking up two assists. In the second period, Josh won a board battle with two Wolves getting the puck to Dakota Mermis whose shot was deflected by Ryan Rupert to make it 1-0 Knights. Josh added another assist on the empty net goal to make it 4-2 Knights. Josh was held scoreless in a 6-2 win over Erie but would take on Dane Fox in a second period fight.
The OHL announced this week its roster for the Subway Super Series – an annual event in which a team of Canadian players will face a team of Russian players in two games. Josh will be one of 13 players that will play in both games including playing for his coach Dale Hunter when the game is played in Sudbury on November 25th.
Nick Moutrey-Saginaw Spirit (OHL)
Season Stats 17GP 4-4-8 -4 17PIM
The Spirit was one of the busier teams this week going 2-1 with Nick snapping a four game pointless streak. Nick was held off the scoresheet in Saginaw’s first two games although he did get into his first fight of the season in a win over Plymouth. In Saturday night’s loss to Sault Ste. Marie, Nick scored his fourth goal of the season in a 4-3 loss. Nick’s goal would make it 3-1 Spirit before they allowed three straight.
Kerby Rychel-Windsor Spitfires (OHL)
Season Stats 15GP 11-15-26 +6 11PIM
Only one game for the Spitfires last week but it’d be a big one with the Spits picking up a 6-0 victory. Kerby scored two goals including the game winner. A little more than a minute in Kerby deflected a Eric Diodati shot for his 10th of the season. Later in the game, with the Spits up 4-0, Kerby and his linemates worked a pretty passing play resulting in Kerby having a wide open net to shoot into to make it 5-0 and give Kerby 11 on the season. Kerby was named first star in the victory. Much like Josh above, Kerby was named to Team OHL but he will only play in one game because if he played in both that would be five straight days with a game. It would shock me if coach Bob Boughner gave Kerby a night off during that stretch. Quickly in Movember news Kerby is taking part in the event with his own page along with the Spitfire’s team page.
Oliver Bjorkstrand-Portland Winterhawks (WHL)
Season Stats 18GP 15-20-35 +14 8PIM
Those Winterhawks just keep rolling along stretching their win streak to 11 games. Starting off on Wednesday, just 52 seconds in Oliver sent a cross rink pass to Taylor Leier who’d score his ninth of the season. Later in the period with the Hawks shorthanded, Oliver and Chase De Leo would work a two on one with Oliver passing it to De Leo to make it 2-0 Hawks. Oliver was named second star in the 5-2 victory and the two assists put him at 50 in his WHL career. The Hawks next game was against their bitter rival the Seattle Thunderbirds with Oliver picking up another two assists in the team’s 5-2 victory. To close out the week it was off to Spokane. Oliver opened the scoring late in the first with his 15th goal of the season in what would be a 3-1 Hawks victory. Oliver is currently on a 12 game point streak. The Winterhawks are taking part in Movember – the players are splitting into teams of three. Oliver is teamed up with over-ager Shane McColgan (who already has a full beard) and backup goalie Jarrod Scamerhorn so we may have some fun tracking that activity off-ice.
Dillon Heatherington-Swift Current Broncos (WHL)
Season Stats 19GP 1-13-14 +10 21PIM
It was a successful week for Dillon and the Broncos. The Jackets prospect picked up points in all three wins including a wild one on Saturday. Dillon got his first assist on Colby Cave’s second period goal that tied the game that would end in a 3-2 Broncos shootout win. In the team’s win over Saskatoon, the assist came off a blast from the point that was deflected by Zac Mackay (I guess, hard to tell from highlights). Ultimately, the Broncos would win 5-3. Saturday would be a wild one as the Broncos trailed 5-1 going into the third period but would score six goals to win it 7-6 including three in the first three minutes. Dillon’s two assists would be late in the comeback. With the Broncos trailing 6-4, Heatherington fired a shot wide but it bounced off the boards and off Blades goalie Alex Moodie. For some reason, Connor Sanvido got credit for it. Five minutes later, Dillon would keep the puck in the zone and find Coda Gordon who found a driving Graham Black to make it 6-6.
Quickly some injury updates – Gianluca Curcuruto and Peter Quenneville continue to miss time with injuries. Going off a tweet Jokerit sent out (and using Google translate) Joonas Korpisalo was loaned to the Finnish U19 team but somehow was injured as an injury replacement was named.
Martin Ouellette-Maine (Hockey East)
Season Stats 7GP 3-3-1 2.39GAA .919Sv%
Martin and the Black Bears faced off against the UMass Minutemen on Friday night. Martin would make 31 saves in a 1-1 tie and was named second star. Saturday night would not go as well with Martin making 24 saves in a 2-1 loss.
TJ Tynan-Notre Dame (Hockey East)
Season Stats 8GP 1-7-8 +2 8PIM
TJ and the Irish played their first ever Hockey East series traveling to Vermont for a game against the Catamounts. Friday night TJ was held scoreless in a 2-1 loss although he did pick up an assist in the team’s 3-2 win. The assist came on Stephen Johns’ first goal of the season and the only goal of the 2-1 game. Next week is a big one as the Irish will welcome the number one team in the country Minnesota and Jackets prospects Seth Ambroz and Mike Reilly who were off this week.
Anton Forsberg-MODO (SHL)
Season Stats 9GP 6-2-1 2.05GAA .930Sv%
Another week of only one game for Anton continuing the goalie rotation. Anton’s only start came against Jackets first round pick Alexander Wennberg and Frolunda. In the 2-1 victory, Anton made 33 saves for his 6th of the season. Linus Ullmark would go 1-1 to round out the rest of the week.
Daniel Zaar-Rogle BK (Allsvenskan)
Season Stats 19GP 7-2-9 +2 6PIM
Daniel and Rogle had a good week going 2-1 with Daniel picking up three points. The first opponent the team would face was BIK Karlskoga – the team Daniel was loaned to last season. With Rogle leading 1-0, Daniel snapped a wrister from the faceoff dot for his sixth goal of the season. Rogle would end up winning the game 3-0. Daniel was held scoreless in a 3-2 shootout win over Troja-Ljungby. To close out the week it was game against the Malmo Redhawks and Jackets defenseman Anton Blomqvist. In the 2-0 victory Daniel would have a goal and an assist. Daniel assisted on the opening goal when, off a faceoff win, he got the puck to a defenseman whose shot was stopped and led to Dennis Everberg getting the rebound. In the third period, Daniel won a board battle, curled from behind the net and snapped off a shot to make it 2-0 for his team leading 7th goal of the season. Daniel was named third star for his efforts.
Next week will be a light one as the European prospects are all off until November 11th so they can be with their national teams so we’ll stay stateside with all that’s going on in prospect land.
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