Greetings, all! Time for the week in review!
Starting off in Cleveland as we do, the Monsters got off to an early start by welcoming the Chicago Wolves for a Tuesday-Thursday series. The game got feisty quick when Josh Anderson fought Jordan Caron. After a Wolves goal, the Monsters struck when Daniel Zaar fired a shot that was stopped but Oliver Bjorkstrand picked up the rebound and fired for his eighth of the season. After Danny Kristo struck again for the Wolves, Bjorkstrand returned the favor. Early in the third period, Oliver took a pass at the top of the circle and fired a shot to tie the game. Midway through overtime, Markus Hannikainen skated in and fired a wrist shot at the circle to give the Monsters a 3-2 win.
Up next on Thursday, most of the came from players on PTOs. Steve Eminger opened the scoring with a shot from above the circle for his second goal of the season. In the second, Zaar gathered a loose puck above the circle and fired a shot for his team leading 12th of the season. Late in the third is when things got wacky. Hannikainen took a penalty and the Wolves pulled their goalie. So first, Manny Malhotra scored a goal without even taking a shot as he was hauled (wrestled) to the ice on a breakaway towards the empty net. 26 seconds later, the Monster struck again when Michael Chaput launched a puck that hit the post and allowed Nick Moutrey to score his fifth goal of the season and first career shorthanded goal. 25 seconds after that, TJ Tynan battled for a puck and passed to a streaking Trent Vogelhuber for the third shorthanded goal of the penalty. The three shorthanded goals on the same penalty would be the first time this has happened in the AHL since the Saint John Flames did it against New Haven in 1998.
After a day off/travel day to Texas, the Monsters took 1-0 lead when, after a long sequence in the Stars end, Tynan got a rebound and fired a shot into an almost empty net. In the second period, Chaput sent the puck into the slot with Zaar gathering it and passing to Jamie Sifers who hammered a shot to make it 2-0. In the third, after an early Stars goal, the Monsters streaked in on a three on two with Michael Paliotta firing a shot that was stopped with Lukas Sedlak picking up the rebound for his third of the season. Sadly the Monsters then allowed three straight including the overtime game winner.
Closing out the weekend in a back to back with Texas, Paliotta got the Monsters on the board when he kept the puck in and fired a shot that the Stars goalie got a piece of but the puck still ended up in the net to make it 1-0. The Monsters gave up a late first period goal and a second period to fall 2-1.
Blake Siebenaler-Niagara IceDogs (OHL)
Season Stats 50GP 3-18-21 +3 10PIM
Blake and the Dogs opened the week in a dog fight with the Hamilton Bulldogs(RIP Belleville Bulls). In the second period with the game tied, Blake helped Josh Ho-Sang score his 16th of the season. A Bulldog tried to clear the puck but Blake intercepted the pass and skated in while battling with two and drawing the attention of another Bulldog. Blake then sent a pass to Ho-Sang in the slot who tapped it in to make it 2-1 in a 3-2 overtime win.
Blake would go pointless in a 3-1 loss to London.
Closing out the weekend against Mississauga in an ugly one, Blake picked up another assist when, with the Fish leading 5-1 and the Dogs on the power play, Blake passed to Jordan Maletta who sent a cross rink pass to Brendan Perlini who hammered a one timer to make it 5-2 in a 6-2 loss.
Olivier LeBlanc-Cape Breton Screaming Eagles (QMJHL)
Season Stats 49GP 5-25-30 +19 62PIM
Olivier was part of another big blowout win when, just moments into the third after the Eagles had scored a franchise record seven goals, Olivier sent a home run pass to Giovanni Fiore who scored his second of the game in a 10-3 Eagles win.
Olivier was held without a point in the Eagles last two games last week.
Julien Pelletier-Sherbrooke Phoenix (QMJHL)
Season Stats 49GP 23-15-38 -22 39PIM
After going pointless in the Phoenix’s week opening game against Blainville-Boisbriand, Julien was suspended by the team for violating a team rule and missed a game against Val’-d Or.
Closing out the week against Quebec, with Sherbrooke leading 1-0, Julien received a pass from Nathanael Halbert and hammered it home to make it 2-0 in a 4-3 overtime loss.
Sam Ruopp-Prince George Cougars (WHL)
Season Stats 57GP 4-17-21 +22 88PIM
It was a light week for the Cougars as they welcomed the Kelowna Rockets for a pair of games. Sam had one of the biggest nights of his career picking up his second three point game and first since 2014.
In the first just 34 seconds after the Rockets struck off a faceoff, Sam fired a point shot that bounced off the backwall. Brad Morrison gathered the puck and fired into an empty net to tie it. Later in the game, with the Cougars trialing 4-1, Sam started the rush by passing to Jesse Gabrielle who passed to Chase Witala who passed to Sam in the slot who scored for his fourth of the season. Later in the game with the Cougars trailing 5-3, Sam fired a point shot that was stopped with Jared Bethune picking up the rebound to make it 5-4 in a 6-4 Cougars loss.
Keegan Kolesar-Seattle Thunderbirds (WHL)
Season Stats 55GP 30-29-59 +11 93PIM
Keegan opened a busy week by going pointless in a 7-4 loss to Kelowna before having a big night in the rematch.
When the two teams met again, the Tbirds were leading 1-0 when Keegan passed to Nick Holowko who skated in and passed from just before the goaline to Keegan who put the puck past the Rockets goalie. In the third, the Rockets Dillon Dube tried to pass it to Rourke Chartier but missed and Keegan sprung Mathew Barzal who was off to the races for his second of the night. Keegan also picked up an assist on Barzal’s hat trick goal (it didn’t make the highlight video). Keegan’s three point earned him third star honors in a 6-0 TBirds win.
Up next in a rivalry game against Portland, Keegan picked up an assist when, in the second period, he took a pass from Barzal and found Alexander True in the slot who tied it at two. The game was a back and forth affair and finally ended in a 6-5 overtime win for Seattle.
To close out the week the TBirds welcomed the streaking Victoria Royals who were riding an 11 game win streak. Midway through the first, Keegan appeared to get credit for an own goal when he skated in with Nick Holowko and Keegan sent the puck towards Nick. The Royal’s defender seems to have gotten a piece of it and ended up putting it past his goalie. Later in the third after two Royals goals, Keegan struck again. Ryan Gropp skated in and sent a pass into the crease with Keegan getting a few whacks at it before finally putting it past the Royals goalie. Late in the game with the Birds leading 3-2, Jared Hauf cleared the puck out and a Royals defender stopped it but Keegan intercepted the pass and skated in before finally shooting it just above the circle to complete his second hat trick of the season and his career. The goal was his 30th of the season and it makes him the 13th player in the WHL with 30. Here are Keegan and Coach Steve Konowalchuk’s postgame comments.
Tyler Bird-Brown (ECAC)
Season Stats 25GP 3-2-5 -7 2PIM
It was a light week for Tyler and the Bears as they traveled to Cornell for a game with The Big Red. Tyler picked up an assist on Zach Pyzbek’s third period goal to make it 3-2; but, sadly The Big Red tied the game with only 9.4 seconds left.
Zach Werenski-Michigan (Big 10)
Season Stats 25GP 6-15-21 +6 16PIM
Zach and the Wolverines were off to Madison for a series against Bucky (Wisconsin). Zach picked up an assist on Dexter Dancs’ sixth goal of the season in a 4-1 victory on Friday night.
Saturday night was a repeat of Zach’s performance, when he again helped Dancs’ score again. But as for the same score, this time in a 4-4 tie that the Wolverines lost in the shootout.
Other Notes:
Last week, I promised a update on our prospects playing in two separate international tournaments and well… I had a heck of a time getting info on them.
Veeti Vainio took part in a U20 Five Nations tournament in Germany but I can’t tell if Veeti had any points. As for the tournament, his team, the Young Lions, finished second.
As for Vladislav Gavrikov at the Euro Hockey Tour, the Russians took on the Czech Repblic in a pair of games and split them with the loss coming in either a shootout or overtime, it was hard to tell from the site.
There you have it folks. Next week we’ll have the last two games of the KHL season along with a full schedule of games for our other prospects.
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