Hello all! Time for the week in review.
Starting off in Cleveland as we do, the Monsters welcomed the old Monsters to the Q as the Avalanche’s new affiliate, the San Antonio Rampage, came to town for a back to back.
Starting off on Friday, the game got off to a rough start as Brett Gallant took on Patrick Bordeleau 2:10 into the game and Oleg Yevenko faced off against Daniel Maggio before the next faceoff could happen. The Monsters finally got around to opening the scoring when Michael Paliotta passed to Steve Eminger at the circle. Eminger then sent a pass to Daniel Zaar in the slot who scored his team leading 13th goal of the season. After three straight Rampage goals, the Great Dane would strike. With the Monsters on the power play, Oliver Bjorkstrand kept the puck in and cycled it to TJ Tynan. Tynan passed to Oliver who fired a…missile (that word doesn’t even sound fast or strong enough, let’s just say he got all of it). Midway through the second, Zaar brought the puck into the zone drawing the Rampage’s defenders attention and passed to Michael Chaput who skated in and scored his 11th of the season. In overtime, Chaput took part in a battle behind the net before passing to Zaar who then found Dillon Heatherington in the slot. The defenseman’s shot was stopped and the rebound went to Chaput. The goalie was way out of position and Michael spun and scored his 12th of the season and his third game winner of the season, the last two coming in overtime.
Saturday night, the Cleveland Barons were revived for the first time since 2006, (or 1978 depending on if you want to go off the logo they used). The game was a goaltender’s duel up until 1:48 left in the third when things got wacky. The Rampage tried to clear the puck but Bjorkstrand plucked it out of the sky, laid it on the ice and hammered it home for his 11th goal of the season. 24 seconds later with San Antonio on the power play and an empty net, John Ramage blocked a shot, gathered the loose puck and fired it from farther out than David Legwand when he scored against the Jackets to make it 2-0 so HA!(too soon?). The Monsters allowed two goals in 37 seconds that tied the game and sent it to overtime. Nothing was decided in the extra inning so the two teams headed to a shootout. San Antonio scored in first round and Sonny Milano also scored on wait for it….a backhand. The shootout went seven rounds, and ultimately, Trent Vogelhuber needed to score on his attempt to tie and he didn’t.
No offense from the OHL kids this week, but we have off-ice on-ice antics to talk about as the Niagara IceDogs held their annual Family Day event which includes a skills competition. In the event, Blake Sibenaler won the fastest skater event with a lap of 15.05 seconds. In game action, Blake made one of his worst decisions (according to this twitter account) by taking on Florida Panthers first round pick Lawson Crouse in what was just Blake’s second fight of his OHL career.
Olivier LeBlanc-Cape Breton Screaming Eagles (QMJHL)
Season Stats 51GP 5-26-31 +21 66PIM
Olivier and the Eagles opened the week with another blowout victory. In the 9-2 win Olivier picked up an assist when Evgeny Svechnikov tipped his point shot in to make it 2-0 in a 9-2 Eagles win.
Olivier went without a point in a 5-3 win over Blainville.
Tyler Bird-Brown (ECAC)
Season Stats 27GP 4-2-6 -7 2PIM
Tyler and the Bears welcomed the 20th ranked Clarkson Golden Knights to town this week. Tyler opened the scoring when he picked up the rebound of a point shot and slid the puck past the Knight’s goalie. The Bears defeated the Knights 5-2 for their fifth won of the season.
Tyler was held without a point in a 2-2 tie with St. Lawrence on Saturday.
Zach Werenski-Michigan (Big 10)
Season Stats 26GP 7-15-22 +7 20PIM
It was a short week for Zach and the Wolverines as they welcomed Ferris St for their first home game in almost a month. In the 5-2 win, Zach showed off the offensive skill that made him a first round pick. In the third period with the Wolverines leading 3-1, Zach’s D partner Jospeh Cecconi won a battle and got the puck before catching a streaking Zach. Werenski skated the length of the ice (most of it with a Bulldog over him,) and into the slot before firing a backhand to make it 4-1 in a 5-2 Wolverines win.
Oscar Dansk-Rogle BK (SHL)
Season Stats 31GP 11-18 2.68GAA .908Sv% 2SO
Oscar Dansk only played in one of Rogle’s three games last week but what a game it was for him.
Oscar served as the backup in a 3-2 win over MODO, before going back in the crease against the team with which he started his career, Brynas IF. In the 1-0 win, Oscar made 33 saves including one on a penalty shot, for his second shutout of the season and first since September ninth. It was his second start of the season. Here’s a save montage from @SHLProspectGIFS on twitter.
Oscar then served as the backup in Rogle’s next game, a 4-1 loss to Skelleftea AIK.
Quickly out of Finland, Veeti Vainio and the Blues had a busy stretch last week when they played four games in five nights. In the week’s opener, a 3-1 loss to SaiPa, Veeti played a career and season high 25:52. It was a game that had the Blues only dressing 16 skaters due to injuries, a player that would’ve been playing his eighth game in 11 days, and a player having issues with his transfer. Veeti went pointless in all four games last week.
As for Markus Nutivaara, he returned to the Stoats lineup for his first game (other than the CHL final) since late January and he played just 4:51 before he took a teammate’s shot to the head.
Vladislav Gavrikov-Lokomotiv (KHL)
Final Regular Season Stats 42GP 3-4-7 +17 18PIM, 47 Hits, 28 Blocked Shots
Playoff Stats 1GP 1-0-1 +1 0PIM
Vladislav and the Trains closed out the regular season last week and started the KHL Playoffs. Vladislav played in 42 of Lokomotiv’s 60 games. Most of his lost games were due to an injury in late September and all of October. Vladislav went pointless in his one game last week and he was scratched in the other presumably to get a little extra time to rest due to playing in the Euro Hockey Tour.
Lokomotive finished with the second most points in the Western Conference but they were the third seed which meant facing off against 2015 Gagarin Cup Champion SKA St Petersburg. The series started on Sunday with Vladislav helping the Lokomotiv tie the game. In the second, a hit by Vladislav knocked the puck loose allowing Andrei Loktionov to skate in and backhand a shot. Loktionov then gathered his own rebound and found Stanislav Chistov at the left circle who got the puck to Vladislav who fired and score his first career playoff goal. The game went to overtime with ex-Jacket Jiri Novotny scoring the game winner 14:56 into overtime.
Elvis Merzlikins-HC Lugano (National League A)
Season Stats 42GP 26W 2.73GAA .924Sv% 1SO
Only one game for Elvis last week and he picked up his 26th win of the season against HC Ambri-Piotta with 27 saves in a 4-2 win.
There you have it, folks, another week in the world of CBJ prospects. As for next week, Zach Werenski and the Wolverines travel to St Paul for a Thursday-Friday series against Ryan Collins and the Gophers. On the other side of the world, Gabriel Carlsson will be taking on Oscar Dansk and Rogle.
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