Greetings, all. I have been up in Traverse City for the 2016 Prospect Tournament the whole time but as for yesterday’s game…if you can’t say anything nice about something don’t say anything at all. Anyhoo, after last night’s uninspired performance, the Jackets shuffled lines and came out strong, focused and were able to earn a win in the process.
Midway through the first period, Zach Werenski scored his first of the tournament when he took a pass from Blake Siebenaler and fired a blast to make it 1-0 which was how the first period would end on the scoreboard. On ice, time expired with the Jackets on the penalty kill when Jacob Graves was separated from Ivan Barbashev after Graves slashed the Blues player in the back of the leg.
The CBJ opened the second on the penalty kill for 1:21 and, in a noticeable statement, Werenski was on the ice for the entirety of it. After the kill, there were spectacular plays in net on both ends of the ice with Blues goalie Ville Husso stopping the puck from going in on the goal line and then Jeremy Brodeur making a spectacular sliding save to keep it 1-0.
Midway through the second, Justin Scott pushed the puck past Husso for his second of the tournament. And then just over four minutes later, Scott struck again when Paul Bittner got him the puck and Scott skated around the net before going backhand and top corner to make it 3-0 Jackets.
Into the third we went and, well, not much happened until the last three minutes. First, the Blues got on the board ruining Brodeur’s shutout bid when, on the power play due to a Scott holding call, Dmitrii Sergeev skated in and slid the puck past the Jackets netminder to make it 3-1. Just over a minute later, Sonny Milano put the nail in the coffin when he fired the puck from his own blueline into an empty net to make it 4-1.
For the game, if I were to name three stars, it would have been:
- First Star: Justin Scott with two goals and a game high six shots
- Second Star: Jeremy Brodeur who stopped 27 of 28
- Third Star: Sonny Milano who had a goal and an assist
As for quick player notes, in the two games played so far, I’ve really liked three of the Jackets OHL free agent signings: Jordan Maletta, the above mentioned Scott and Jacob Graves. Markus Nutivaara has been impressive as well in his North American debut and has shown his speed while also unleashing a few blasts from the point.
There is no game action in the tournament tomorrow. The Jackets will get back to work on Monday by first, practicing in the morning and then playing Chicago, who are coming off a 5-0 win over Detroit. With all four teams in the Jackets’ division currently at 1-1 going into Monday’s games, it will go down to who’s 2-1 and then the tiebreakers to determine which team will play in the Championship game on Tuesday. Winning on Monday is certainly Columbus’ best path to the potential three-peat.
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