While the NHL and NHLPA continue to tackle the seemingly impossible task of negotiating a new CBA, there was plenty of hockey to be had on the prospect front. Without any more delay, let’s get to the recaps for last week’s play.
It was a short but travel filled week for the Falcons as they loaded up for a rare flight for the team’s only trip to Canada this season. The Birds headed as far East in Canada as you can get to St. John’,s Newfoundland for a back to back with the IceCaps. First on Friday night, with the Falcons trailing, Ryan Craig would open the scoring just 2:51 into the second. Cam Atkinson’s blast bounced off the end boards and all Craig had to do was tap it in for his 45th goal all time with the Falcons. Later in the second, Dalton Prout would send a pass to Jonathan Audy-Marchessault and JAM would be off to the races skating past two Caps defenders before deking the puck past Eddie Pasquale for his seventh of the season. Just 1:28 later Nick Drazenovic would score on another breakaway firing a wrist shot over Pasquale’s shoulder launching the goalie’s water bottle off the net. After allowing two IceCaps goals, Cam Atkinson would take over scoring two goals. The first came off the rebound of a Dalton Prout blast and the second would be an empty net goal to seal the 5-3 victory. Curtis McElhinney would make 33 saves for his 12th win of the season.
The next night it’d be McElhinney taking on former Falcon/Jacket Mark “the Dexshow” Dekanich (remember him?) and McElhinney would be the busier of the two goalies. After being held scoreless in the first period, Matt Calvert would get the Birds on the board just 24 second in, right as the announcer was making a comment about the Caps in the second period (not sure what he was saying Matt kinda interrupted him… don’t ya hate when that happens). Tomas Kubalik would score just five minutes later in his usual form off the deflection of a Tim Erixon blast for his fifth of the season. After the IceCaps made it 2-1, who else but Cam Atkinson would score his team leading 13th goal of the season after seizing a turnover and having two whacks at it. The Caps would score late to make it 3-2 but with 26 seconds remaining, Tomas Kubalik would get the puck to Ryan Johansen for a empty net goal – his eighth of the season. Curtis McElhinney would set a career high in the 4-2 win making 46 saves for his league leading 13th win of the season.
It would be Cam, JAM and the Johan leading the Falcons in scoring last weekend. Atkinson would lead the way with five points (3-2-5) including a four point night on Friday night. Jonathan Audy-Marchessaullt and Ryan Johansen each had a goal and three assists. The only other Falcons with multiple points were Tomas Kubalik and Nick Drazenovic each with a goal and an assist and Dalton Prout with two assists. Cam’s big weekend pushed him near the top of both the AHL’s scoring and goal scoring races. Cam is currently tied with Audy-Marchessault for fourth in total points with 25 and third in goals with 13. Cam’s two game winning goals gave him the league lead with five. And, perhaps no less an accomplishment, the great Dave Gunnarsson who’s painted Steve Mason and many other Jackets goalie masks the last few seasons debuted his paint job for Curtis McElhinney last week, the design is called Mayfly.
Meanwhile in Evansville after struggling out of the gate, the IceMen have been on a nice little run including winning four in a row at home. It seems their only hurdle last week was being able to win in Cincinnati (the Men have won five of last eight with all three losses in Cincy). First on Wednesday, they’d travel to U.S. Bank Arena with Allen York getting the start stopping 36 of 38. Unfortunately, the shootout would be Allen’s undoing where he stopped only one of the Cyclones four shots. On Friday night back in Evansville, the Toledo Walleye would come to town with Paul Karpowich getting the start but he was pulled after the first period having stopped 10 of 13 with the Icemen trailing 3-2. Allen would play the rest of the game stopping 20 of 22. It ended up being two players signed by the Falcons pulling off some history as Nathan Moon and Wade MacLeod would both pick up hat tricks in the IceMen’s 8-5 come from behind victory, the first hat tricks in the Ford Center’s history. On Saturday the Cyclones would come to Evansville with Allen stopping 26 of 27 and being named third star.
As usual we’ll cover the prospects that didn’t score. Kevin Lynch and Michigan were off last week and will face off against Western Michigan next week. It was a week of shutouts last week for the Chicoutimi Sagueneens as they won 1-0 against Baie-Comeau on Friday with Lukas Sedlak winning 16 of 27 faceoffs in the game. On Sunday it would be the Sags being shutout losing 3-0 to Cape Breton with Sedlak winning 16 of 23 faceoffs in the loss. Drew Olson would be held scoreless in a split with Bemidji State winning 4-2 on Friday then losing 2-1 on Friday. Next week the Bulldogs will travel to Anchorage, Alaska to finish off the 2012 part of the season.
Oscar Dansk-Erie Otters (OHL)
Season Stats 27GP 8-15-1-3 3.63GAA .904Sv%
Oscar would get the start on Friday as the Otters welcomed the Ottawa 67’s and the NHL Network’s EJ Hradek, who I asked about Oscar and he responded with this. As for the game, Oscar would be solid stopping 26 of 28 in a 6-2 Otters win that marked new head coach Kris Knoblauch’s first with the franchise. Oscar would get a rare night off on Friday and it’d be a rough one with the Otters losing 8-0 to Guelph. It was teddy bear toss night at Erie Insurance Arena and the fans would voice their displeasure not only booing the team off the ice but throwing the bears after the Storm’s fifth goal. I believe Oscar got the night off so that coach Knoblauch would see what backup Devin Williams can do while Oscar is with Team Sweden at the World Juniors. To close out the weekend, Erie made its last trip to Brampton (possibly ever) as the Battalion will be moving to North Bay next season. In the 5-2 loss Oscar would stop 27 of 32.
Josh Anderson-London Knights (OHL)
Season Stats 33GP 9-14-23 +4 31PIM
The Knights just keep rolling along pushing their winning streak to 18 games which ties the Franchise record. Starting off on Wednesday in a 4-3 win, Josh would score his ninth of the season. With the Knights trailing 2-1, San Jose pick Chris Tierney and Josh would start a two on one and Tierny would throw a semi no look pass to Josh and all he had to do was tap it in. Josh would be held off the scoresheet in 5-2 wins over Niagara and Mississauga. Anderson was also given a ‘B’ on his mid-season report card from London beat writer John Matisz.
Boone Jenner-Oshawa Generals (OHL)
Season Stats 32GP 27-20-47 +11 30PIM
It was a light week for the Generals who played only two games and Boone would only pick up an assist. Boone and the Generals first traveled to Plymouth to face the Whalers. In the 4-3 Generals win, Boone would pick up his 20th assist of the season on Columbus native (and Blue Jackets fan) Cole Cassels’ sixth goal of the season. Boone’s assist would come on a five on three – after Scott Sabourin’s shot nailed the post, Cassels passed to Boone who passed it back to Cassels who blasted it past the Whalers goalie. This is the fourth year in a row Boone has had 20 assists setting a career high of 41. In a 3-2 loss to Windsor on Sunday, Boone would be held scoreless snapping a seven game point streak during which he scored 13 points (9-4-13) and had five multi-point games.
Gianluca Curcuruto-Plymouth Whalers (OHL)
Season Stats 29GP 1-12-13 +4 16PIM
Gianluca would play in two of the Whaler’s three games last week as, based off his twitter feed, he’s suffering from the flu. Starting off on Tuesday, Gianluca picked up no points in the Whalers 3-2 shootout loss to Owen Sound but would be even. Friday night the Whalers’ in-state rivals the Saginaw Spirit would come to town and Gianluca’s assist would look like a lot of his assists lately. It came off a big blast from the point which created a scrum in front of Saginaw’s Jake Patterson and led to Ryan Hartman scoring his 12th of the season in a 3-2 Whalers overtime win. Saturday’s game against Oshawa is the game Gianluca sat out which marked the first game any CHL non-goalie prospect has missed this season (knock on wood).
Thomas Larkin-Colgate (ECAC)
Season Stats 18GP 2-5-7 32PIM
Last week Thomas and the Red Raiders traveled to Amherst, Massachusetts for a series with the Minutemen. Starting off on Friday the Raiders would be victorious in a 6-4 victory although Thomas was held scoreless and was a -1. Saturday would be more of the same for the Raiders as they defeated the Minutemen 5-2. Thomas picked up two assists (no idea why there’s no sound) for his first multi-point game since February 4th when he had a goal and an assist against RPI. The Raiders are done until January 4-5 2013 when they play Sacred Heart.
Martin Ouelette-Maine (Hockey East)
Season Stats 8GP 1-5-2 2.23GAA .915Sv%
Another short week for the Black Bear with them traveling to Beantown to take on the Terriers. Martin continued his solid play of late stopping 20 of 21 in a 1-0 loss in which he was named third star. Maine is another team that is done until after the holidays when they’ll travel to Florida to play in the Florida Hockey Classic, Maine will open against a team with another CBJ prospect – Drew Olson and Minnesota-Duluth then they’ll move on to play the winner/loser of Ferris St and Cornell.
Seth Ambroz, Mike Reilly-Minnesota (WCHA)
Season Stats: Ambroz: 17GP 5-4-9 16PIM Reilly: 17GP 2-8-10 2PIM
This week the Gophers were off to Colorado Springs to face off against the Colorado College Tigers and it’d be a decent weekend for the two Jacket prospects. Mike would be the only Jacket prospect to pick up a point on Friday when he started the rush maneuvering around a Tigers dman chipping it to Sam Warning who caught the goalie off guard for his second of the season. On Saturday night both Jacket prospects would score in the 4-4 tie marking the second time this has happened this season. Seth picked up his first of two points when he got an assist on Tom Serratore’s goal in the first period. From the video its hard to tell how Seth got the assist but he’ll take it. Seth’s next point would be easier to identify because it was a flat out blast from the point off a face off win. This goal marked the tying point versus his goal total for last season in 24 less games (all five of Seth’s goals have come on the road). Not wanting to feel left out, Mike would score a pretty one as well. For some reason coach Don Lucia this weekend dressed eight D with Mike and normal D partner Justin Holl playing at forward (I’m guessing its because Mike and fellow freshman Brady Skjel will be off to Russia for the WJC). Mike and Holl started a two on one and Mike flipped the puck over the Tiger’s goalie shoulder for his second of the season and 10th point. Mike would be interviewed again after the game talking about playing forward. The Gophers are off until December 29-30 when they host the Mariucci Classic at Marriucci Arena where they’ll play Air Force and the number one team in the country (as of this writing) Boston College.
TJ Tynan-Notre Dame (CCHA)
Season Stats 17GP 4-9-13 12PIM
TJ and the Irish would sweep Michigan State last week with TJ continuing his strong play of late. TJ added to his current point streak and is now at five games. First on Friday, TJ scored his fourth goal of the season and added an assist on Mario Lucia’s earlier goal. TJ ended up being named 3rd star in the 3-2 Irish victory. On Saturday night TJ would pick up an assist on Thomas DiPauli’s 3rd of the season.
Daniel Zaar-Rogle BK (Sweden)
Season Stats (J20 Stats) 15GP 8-8-16 +4 16PIM
It was an up and down week as usual for Daniel as he played for both the main club and the J20 team last week. First on Monday in a 3-1 loss to Timr, Daniel would be held off the scoresheet for the 10th straight game This dubious streak would continue in a overtime loss to Brynas IF and a shootout loss to HV71. Finally on Sunday, Daniel would play for the J20 team scoring two goals in a 4-1 win over Malmo with his first goal being the game winner. Sweden is now off until the day after Christmas. The main club will just keep going along but for the J20 team things will be a bit different. The J20 league is split between North and South playing 27 games. After Christmas the top five teams in the North play the top five teams in the South with the bottom five doing the same. Rogle finished sixth with a record of 11-13-3 they’ll play: Tingryds AIF, Vaxjo Lakers, Malmo and the South’s punching bag Huddinge IK who went 0-26-1. The teams from the North are Djurgarden IF, Leksands IF, Lulea HF, Mora IK and Vasteras HK.
Anton Forsberg-Sodertajle SK (Sweden)
Season Stats (with league rank in parenthesis) 17GP 10-7 2.18GAA (4th) .925Sv% (2nd) 1 Shutout (T5th)
Anton would start two of SSK’s three games last week earning a split. First on Tuesday in a win over Mora IK, Anton would make 25 saves in a 3-2 victory for his 10th of the season. Anton then got a night off with Sebastien Idoff taking a shootout loss against IK Oskarshamn. Saturday had Anton back in net making 26 saves in a 3-2 loss.
Joonas Korpisalo-Kiekko-Vantaa (Finland)
Season Stats 15GP 6-8 3.00GAA .895Sv%
For the first time this season Joonas would win back to back game spending the whole week with the fish. On Friday night, Kiekko-Vantaa would welcome Vaasan Sport to town with KV winning 3-2. Joonas stopped 26 of 28 and was named man of the match (similar to first star but they do one per team). Saturday night they’d be back at it facing Jokipojat. The Fish won 3-2 in a shootout with Joonas stopping 23 of 25 in regulation and overtime and stopping four of five in the shootout. It’s now off to join Team Finland for the World Juniors where as I’ve been saying he should be the team’s number one goalie.
Well folks there you have it – another week in the world of CBJ prospects. As for next week, the weekly recap could be short. There are five prospects heading to WJC camps and four of those five appear to be locks for the tournament. This leaves only a remaining prospects playing games as the national teams prepare.
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