Greetings all, time for the annual week in review.
As usual, we start off in Cleveland where it was a big weekend for the Monsters with division leading Rockford coming to town on Friday and Saturday night. But first, on Thursday night, the Rochester Americans came into the Q. John Ramage opened the scoring with a slapshot from the point that only added to his career high in goals. Early in the second, Daniel Zaar scored a very Daniel Zaar goal when Alex Broadhurst chipped the puck to Michael Chaput who got it back to Broadhurst who then found Zaar at the circle. Zaar hammered one home for his 14th of the season. Later in the second, Chaput and Broadhurst combined for a point again when Chaput, from the circle got the puck to Broadhurst who drove to the net to score his third of the season. Six minutes later ex-Jacket (well Falcons mainly) Jerry D’Amigo scored his first of the game. Exactly three minutes later, Sonny Milano skated into the zone and dropped a pass to Manny Malhotra who passed back with Sonny going…wait for it… backhand for his sixth goal of the season, Anton Forsberg picked up an assist. D’Amigo struck again before Josh Anderson scored an empty net goal from just above the blueline to ice the 4-2 win. Forsberg made 25 saves for his first AHL win since mid January.
Friday night would be the start of the big back to back with the division leaders. The Monsters opened the scoring on the power play when Ramage passed to Zaar at the point. Zaar passed back to Ramage who sent a crossrink pass to Broadhurst who scored on his old team to make it 1-0. Malhotra made it 2-0 with a shorthanded goal. Early in the second, Anderson gathered a loose puck at the point and snapped a shot for his 13th goal of the season. 36 seconds later Milano received a pass before spinning and finding Jamie Sifers who fired a shot that Oliver Bjorkstrand deflected for his 12th goal of the season. Here’s the deflection at full speed its impressive, right? Yeah lets watch it in slow motion (I’ll give you folks some time to pick your jaws up). After two Hogs goals, Lukas Sedlak scored when he deflected a shot from the wall to make it 5-3 in a 5-4 Monsters win.
Saturday night it was Autism Awareness Night as the Monsters wore LEGO themed jerseys. Anderson opened up the scoring when Bryan Bickell tried to pass at the point and Josh intercepted it and was off to the races – skating in and scoring his 14th goal of the season. After an early IceHogs goal in the second, Chaput found a pinching Steve Eminger who sent a quick pass to Bjorkstrand for his 13th goal of the season and fourth in five games (because The Great Dane has to score when you’re wearing LEGO jerseys-LEGO is based in Denmark just under an hour from Oliver’s hometown). The IceHogs scored a goal midway through the third to send the game to overtime, but late in extra time, Zaar skated the puck in and passed to TJ Tynan who passed it back to Daniel down low. Zaar capitalized and scored his team leading 15th goal of the season. Forsberg made 26 saves in the win – his 15th win of the season.
Blake Siebenaler-Niagara IceDogs (OHL)
Season Stats 55GP 3-19-22 -2 15PIM
Blake opened the week by going without a point in a rescheduled game against Ottawa.
Next up on Saturday, which was Blake’s birthday, the Jackets’ prospect picked up an assist in a blowout win over Guelph. In the second with the Dogs leading 3-0, Josh Ho-Sang sent the puck into the slot. Blake gathered it and sent in a backhand shot that was stopped with Stephen Harper getting the rebound and scoring his second of the night.
Blake was held pointless in a 2-1 loss to Erie on Sunday.
Olivier LeBlanc-Cape Breton Screaming Eagles (QMJHL)
Season Stats 54GP 5-27-32 +22 66PIM
Olivier started off the week by going without a point against Gatineau and Rouyn-Noranda before picking up an assist against Val-d’Or.
In the Eagles 8-1 win over the Foreurs, Olivier picked up an assist on top draft prospect Pierre-Luc Dubois’ 36th goal of the season.
Julien Pelletier-Sherbrooke Phoenix (QMJHL)
Season Stats 52GP 24-16-40 -22 46PIM
Julien opened the week by going without a point against Drummondville but he did get into a fight 19 seconds into the game, (because that’s what you want a 5’11” 20 goal scorer doing.)
Julien closed out a light week by picking up a goal and an assist and second star honors in a 4-2 win over Charlottetown.
Out west, Paul Bittner has already been out since early December and this week, Sam Ruopp and Keegan Kolesar missed most of their teams games this week with injuries. Sam was injured during Prince George’s game against Tri-City when he blocked a shot. As for Keegan, the best update I have is that it’s a upper body injury.
Tyler Bird-Brown (ECAC)
Final Regular Season Stats 29GP 5-2-7 -7 6PIM
Tyler opened the weekend by going without a point in a 4-1 loss against #1 ranked Quinnipiac.
To close out the season against Princeton, Tyler gave the Bears a 2-1 lead when he put home the rebound of a Brandon Pfeil point shot. The Tigers tied the game with seven seconds remaining to make it 2-2.
Next week in the ECAC playoffs, Brown will play RPI in the 6-11 (seeding) matchup.
Kevin Stenlund-HV71 (SHL)
Season Stats 39GP 1-1-2 -6 18PIM
As has happened most of the season, Kevin went pointless in the Chainsaws’ first two games before picking up his first career assist in a 5-2 loss against Orebro.
In the second period, Kevin got the puck out of a board battle and skated into the slot before finding a wide open Niklas Hansson to make it 2-2.
Gabriel Carlsson-Linkoping HC (SHL)
Season Stats 41GP 1-8-9 +3 2PIM
It was a busy week for Gabriel and the Lions. Starting off against Oscar Dansk and Rogle, Gabriel picked up his first assist since late January. In the first, Gabriel took a pass from Chad Billins before firing a shot that was tipped by Nichlas Hardt to make it 2-1 in a 7-6 overtime loss.
Up next against Brynas IF, Gabriel had his second career multi point game. In the first with the game tied at one, Gabriel fired a blast from the point that was tipped into the air with ex Jacket (ok Falcon) Broc Little batting it out of the air to make it 2-1. Later in the game, Gabriel pinched and using some fancy footwork to gather the puck and pass it to Andrew Gordon who made it 4-1 Lions. The Lions would win the game 6-3.
Gabriel was held pointless in a 4-2 loss to Brynas to end the month.
Oscar Dansk-Rogle BK (SHL)
Season Stats 34GP 11-15-3-3 .910Sv% 2.79GAA 2SO
Oscar opened the week in a defense optional game where he picked up the win in a 7-6 overtime match against Gabriel Carlsson and Linkoping. Dansk had 36 saves.
In his next game against Vaxjo, Oscar made 36 saves in a 2-1 loss.
Up next in the rematch, Oscar entered the game to try and clean up Lars Volden’s mess when he entered the game with Rogle already down 3-0. Rogle would come back and send the game to overtime and a shootout. Oscar made 26 saves but stopped only one of three in the shootout.
Quick update out of Finland. Veeti Vainio has been a horse for the Blues lately. Against HIFK, Veeti set a career high playing 28:08.
Meanwhile in Russia after winning game one, Vladislav Gavrikov and the Trains now trail SKA 3-1 in the opening round of the KHL playoffs with SKA winning the last three. :ast week I talked about a hit Gavrikov laid on a player that led to the game tying goal. After my recap, I found out that player was Ilya Kovalchuk who was sent back to St. Petersburg and stripped of his captaincy. He hasn’t played in the series since and is now threatening to return to the NHL.
Elvis Merzlikins-HC Lugano (National League A)
Final Regular Season Stats 46GP 27-13-4-1 2.76GAA .922 1SO
Elvis and the Panthers finished the regular season and, for the first time since mid October, Elvis didn’t start a game but more on that later. Starting off against the Kloten Flyers, Elvis made 23 saves in a 5-4 loss.
Up next against EV Zug, Elvis bounced back by picking up his 27th win of the season with 27 saves in a 3-2 overtime loss.
Elvis had his starting streak snapped at 36 straight starts against HC Ambri-Piotta.
As for the playoffs, Elvis and the Panthers will Face EV Zug in the 4-5 matchup and next week, I’ll post all the stats I have for Elvis during the streak.
As for next week’s recap, the SHL season is coming to a close soon but the true highlight – and where I expect everyone to be at on Sunday – is at Nationwide when the Jackets first round pick Zach Werenski will be in Nationwide as the Ohio State Buckeyes invade Nationwide to host the Wolverines.
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