Seasons Greetings folks! We’re getting into some of the best time of the hockey calendar as the World Junior Championships are getting ready to get going in Ufa, Russia.
Last week was a light one for the Falcons – they played only two games before getting four days off for the holidays. Starting off on Wednesday, the Falcons traveled to Portland to take on the Pirates. Miami (Ohio) product Andy Miele would open the scoring two minutes in before the Falcons would score two goals with David Savard scoring his third of the season and Ryan Johansen scoring his 10th of the season. The Falcons went into the first intermission leading 2-1. After a scoreless second period, the Birds would allow two goals only 26 seconds apart in the third to give the Pirates a 3-2 win. Allen York would make 29 saves in the loss but he is still looking for his first AHL win of the season. For the fight fans, Ethan Werek made one of the bigger mistakes of his life messing with Will Weber after Will checked a Pirates player. I’m giving the decision to Will. Saturday night it was off to Giant Center in Hershey, PA in the land of chocolate (I had to). With Andrew Joudrey serving a hooking penalty and the Bears entering the Falcons zone, Matt Calvert forced a turnover and was off to the races. This caused Bears goalie Braden Holtby to over commit and allow Matt’s eighth of the season and first shorthanded goal of the season. The rest of the game would be the Curtis McElhinney show making 19 saves for his new franchise record sixth shutout of the season in the 1-0 win. The 1-0 victory was the first time ever the Birds shutout the Bears and first 1-0 victory since December 3, 2005 against Manchester.
Another week of no Jackets prospects playing in Evansvlle as the Icemen would go 1-1 last week; but, in semi-Jackets related news, Trent Vogelhuber did return to the lineup. Quickly I’ll cover the two Swedes that played games last week. Daniel Zaar was held scoreless in Rogle’s 4-3 loss to AIK. Anton Forsberg would win his only start making 36 saves plus stopping two of three in the shootout of a 4-3 win. Anton wouldn’t play in a 5-3 loss to Bik Karlskoga. In on-ice antics, I found this (fast forward to 13:00 into the video to see it) – according to some, this it’s how Anton celebrates a win.
Now onto the fun stuff: the World Junior Championships. This week was all final tune ups before the tournament gets going on Boxing Day (do you have all your boxes ready…at least I think that’s what it’s about). Lets start with Lukas Sedlak who I have very little info on. The Czechs played two games last week losing to Slovakia 4-1. Going off the roster in this game report, it appears that Lukas will be serving as the Czech’s captain in the tournament. Sunday, the Czechs would take on the Germans who had some difficulty getting to Russia with its starting goalie getting his gear just the day before. In the Czech’s 7-2 victory, Lukas would score two goals. I’ll keep it quick on Oscar Dansk because he didn’t play or dress in either of the Swede’s pre-tournament games. It’s appearing that there will be no Dansk Party in Ufa this year.
On to Mike Reilly. With the USA’s D corps still needing to be ironed out before Christmas, Mike would dress in both games averaging 18 minutes of ice-time – playing 19:06 in an overtime win over Sweden. Here’s Chris Peters’ take on Mike from the Sweden game:
“Mike Reilly — D — I think Reilly had the type of game he needed to have to give himself a chance to make the final roster. Reilly has such terrific speed and creativity with the puck. I never felt like he looked like a liability defensively, even though he took chances jumping into the play. He made a good case to earn strong consideration.” with his whole game recap being found here. On Saturday Team USA would face the Finland with the Little Lions taking a 5-1 win in an ugly game for the Eagles with Peters thinking Mike took a backslide from Thursday. Again here’s Chris’s take on Mike: “Mike Reilly — D — Reilly played the exact kind of game he needed to play against Sweden Thursday. Today was a bit of the opposite. He never was able to establish his offensive game and struggled in the D zone. He was with Jones for three of those goals against. He has that game-breaking potential offensively, but the D game needs some work.” with his game recap here. Team USA has announced its forwards and goalies. The defensemen took a bit longer to be solidified, due to an injury, but we were thrilled to hear Mike officially made the USA Roster as announced on Christmas Day. Congratulations Mike!
Joonas Korpisalo only dressed in one of Finland’s pre-tournament games. He didn’t play in the Canada game but he did start against the US. Joonas would play half the game stopping all 16 shots in the victory. Justin Goldman who runs The Goalie Guild site shared these thoughts on the first period the game “Korpisalo: not uncommon with many U-20 Finnish goalies, his angle play is pretty aggressive for his size. Wide butterfly, broad shoulders.” “Korpisalo: Seen a few sequences where he over-challenges on shots down left wing. Watch for potential rebounds on low shots off right pad.” “Willing to bet Joonas Korpisalo steals at least one game in this tournament. Liked what I saw, was consistent with everything I’ve learned”
Now for Boone Jenner and Team Canada. Starting off on Thursday against Finland in a 3-2 loss, Boone would pick up an assist on Griffin Reinhart’s first period goal when his shot was stopped leaving a wide open net for Reinhart’s goal. On Friday, the Canadians would face off against Sweden, Most of the people I follow thought Boone was Canada’s best player but then in the second period, Boone lowered the “Boon” on a Swedish defenseman. After an outlet pass, Jesper Pettersson was drilled by Jenner knocking Pettersson out of the WJC with a dislocated shoulder and a fractured wrist. For some videos about the hit, here’s TSN’s Bob McKenzie discussing if Boone should be suspended. After the game Boone would show his character by not hiding from the media and doing a post game interview talking about the hit and the team. One other video, as here is Canada’s coach Steve Spott commenting on the game and Boone’s hit. It was announced today (12/24) that Boone would be suspended three games for the hit meaning he’ll miss Canada’s first three games including it’s game against the USA on 12/30.
There you have it! A slow, but news-filled week for the CBJ prospects. Next week we’ll have plenty of World Juniors talk and Sweden will also be back to full speed.
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