Greetings, all! Trying to get back to normalcy around here on the recap schedule, so with two weeks of Monsters games to do, let’s get to it.
Continuing its 10 game road trip in Milwaukee, the Monsters had to work with two goalies who are not under contract with the CBJ as both Joonas Korpisalo and Anton Forbserg were in Columbus.
Starting off in the second, Manny Malhotra and Michael Chaput skated in on a shorthanded two on one with Malhotra finishing it for his first of the year. Later in the second period, Chaput passed to Michael Paliotta who sent a pass to Kerby Rychel. Rychel shot and Paliotta picked up the rebound to make it 2-0. In the third, the Monsters struck again when Rychel found Dillon Heatherington at the point. The defenseman would pump fake before firing a shot that hit the top post and go in for his second of the season. Late in the third, the Admirals coughed up the puck in the neutral zone allowing Chaput to gather it and fire into the empty net to make it 4-0, the goal would give Chaput a four point night. Brad Thiessen made 19 saves in the win.
Next it was off to Grand Rapids for the 97th meeting this season for the Griffins and Monsters (or maybe it just feels that way). After the Griffs scored first, Ryan Craig scored after picking up an Oliver Bjorkstrand shot. After another Griffins goal late in the first, TJ Tynan scored his third of the season when he finished off a two on one with Daniel Zaar. Later in the second, Joe Devin passed to Nick Moutrey but it was blocked and Nick skated through the Griffins D pair and shot a backhand to make it 3-2 Monsters (please watch the highlights the groan by the play by play guy after Nick scored is fantastic). The Griffins tied the game in the second and it went to a shootout with Miami alum Andy Miele scoring the game winner.
Next it was off to Canada for a pair with the Moose. The Monsters opened the scoring when Trent Vogehuber tapped in a shot that Moose goalie Eric Comrie thought he had but it got past him. The Moose tied it late in the first before the Monsters scored the game’s next four goals. In the second, Sonny Milano drove in and backhanded a pass to Chaput who deflected the shot to make it 2-1.
Late in the second, Zaar scored his team leading 10th goal of the season when, after a big time scramble in front, he got the puck in the high slot to make it 3-1.
Early in the third period, Bjorkstrand did most of the work on Milano’s fifth goal of the season. He skated in and garnered all of the Moose’s defenders’ attention leaving Sonny unwatched in the slot where he had an almost empty net to shoot at. 1:01 later, Craig got on the board with (like pretty much every goal he’s scored) a deflection in front. 29 seconds after a Moose goal, Devin scored when he picked up the rebound of a Bjorkstrand shot. After another Moose goal Devin got his second of the night with an empty net goal in a 7-3 win. In the win, Heatherington and Milano were both +5.
The Monsters must’ve used up all their goals in that game because in their next two they would be shutout. Once by Manitoba and once by Grand Rapids. The loss to Grand Rapids was a real heart breaker as the team was getting ready for a shootout but, a late review revealed that Nick Jensen had scored at the 2:08 mark of overtime when his shot went all the way through the net. Thiessen would get credit for 38 saves in the loss.
Next it was off to Chicago for a game with the Wolves. John Ramage opened the scoring in the first when he worked a give and go with Brett Gallant to make it 1-0. 1:13 later, Eric Roy scored his first AHL goal after taking a pass from Alex Broadhurst to make it 2-0. Early in the second, Bjorkstrand would do what he does best when he took a pass from Broadhurst and hammered a one timer to make it 3-0. After a Wolves goal, Derek Deblois scored his third of the season. The Wolves added another goal to make it 4-2, final. Forsberg would make 31 saves in his first start since 12/31 giving him 13 on the season.
Closing out the trip in Chicago, the Wolves would roar (howl?) out to a 2-0 lead before Bjorkstrand scored an almost carbon copy of his goal against the team in the earlier game. In the loss Anton Forsberg made 23 saves.
Blake Siebenaler-Niagara IceDogs (OHL)
Season Stats 41GP 3-15-18 +8 6PIM
Playing a game on national television (ok, Canadian national television but it was replayed on NHL Network) is how Blake and the Dogs opened the week in a game against Ottawa. Blake picked up an assist when he passed to Josh Ho-Sang who passed to Ryan Mantha who unleash a bomb from the point to make it 4-1 Dogs. That tally would stand as the final score. Blake was held pointless in a 2-1 shootout loss to Kingston to close out the week.
Olivier LeBlanc-Cape Breton Screaming Eagles (QMJHL)
Season Stats 39GP 5-23-28 +21 49PIM
Olivier returned from his suspension and had himself a weekend against Acadie-Bathurst starting off on Friday in one of those “defense optional” games.
The Eagles tied the game at six with only 52 seconds remaining, and then, in overtime Olivier skated in on a odd man rush that started as a three on two but ended as a two on one. Olivier skated in with Maxim Lazarev who then passed to Olivier in the slot. LeBlanc then beat the Titan’s goalie for his third of the season in a 7-6 Eagles win.
Saturday continued the defense optional theme, but mostly for the Titan. In the 8-2 Eagles win, Olivier helped get the birds on the board when he passed to Lazarev who found Michael Joly in the slot for his 30th of the season.
Later, with the Eagles leading 2-1, Olivier scored what would end up being the game winner and his second in as many games (a new career high). Olivier’s goal came off a passing sequence that could have been accompanied by Sweet Georgia Brown with Evgeny Svechnikov finding Olivier in the slot.
Midway through the third, Olivier struck on an odd goal when he flipped a backhand from just over the center red line and the puck somehow got past the Titan’s goalie. The shorthanded goal was the first of Olivier’s career. A few minutes later Olivier passed to Svechnikov who passed to Pierre-Marc Dubois. Dubois gathered the puck and scored to make it 7-2 in a 8-2 Eagles win. The game was ultimately called by the league due to both Titan goalies being injured.
For his big weekend, Olivier was named first star for the QMJHL despite having the fewest points of the three stars.
Julien Pelletier-Sherbrooke Phoenix (QMJHL)
Season Stats 41GP 19-15-34 -21 33PIM
After going pointless against one of his old teams, Julien picked up an assist against Val’d-Or when he started the rush that Daniel Audette finished in a 4-3 loss. Julien was held pointless in a game against Drummondville.
Sam Ruopp-Prince George Cougars (WHL)
Season Stats 46GP 3-13-16 +16 70PIM
Sam was one of the busier prospects last week. He played in four games. First in a back to back against Keegan Kolesar and Seattle, Sam picked up an assist on Kody MacDonald’s hat trick goal in a 6-2 Cougars win.
After going pointless in the rematch, Sam earned an assist on the clincher in a 6-4 Cougars win. Ruopp cleared the puck on his second attempt and it headed towards the empty net with Brad Morrison gathering it and scoring to complete his hat trick. Sam was held pointless in the team’s next game against Kelowna.
Keegan Kolesar-Seattle Thunderbirds (WHL)
Season Stats 43GP 20-24-44 +7 78PIM
As I said above, Keegan and Sam played a back to back and well, Keegan’s weekend lasted about 11 seconds. Off the opening faceoff, Keegan got into a fight with Colby McAuley and the ref seemed to think the fight was staged off the draw. This earned the pair a misconduct and Keegan a one game suspension.
In his return to the linup against Regina, it was again a quick highlight for Keegan but this was a positive one. Just under two minutes into the first with the Tbirds on the power play, Keegan finished a pretty tic tac toe play with his linemates Ryan Gropp and Mathew Barzal. The Tbirds won the game 4-2. Keegan was held pointless in a game against Everett.
Zach Werenski-Michigan (Big 10)
Season Stats 19GP 6-10-16 +1 8PIM
Last week Zach and the Wolverines took on OSU in a home and home so of course I took myself to the Schott and…Zach would go without a point. I’ll admit, Zach wasn’t anything spectacular but he was fine other than one play on an OSU goal that had me saying “uh, what were you doing?”. Zach was hard on himself as Michael Arace wrote in a story on the game in Columbus. The defenseman also got to talk with Dave Maetzold for a CBJ pregame show.
When the series switched to Ann Arbor on Sunday, it was another defense optional game if you couldn’t tell by the 8-6 score. Zach picked up an assist on JT Compher’s empty net goal. After an OSU player’s stick broke on a shot, an OSU player took another shot that Zach blocked (along with a flying stick blade) before getting the puck to Compher who scored from the just over the center red line.
Markus Nutivaara-Karpat (Liiga-Finland)
Season Stats 41GP 5-15-20 +12 12PIM
CHL Stats 12GP 4-5-9 +11 0PIM
Opening the week against Tappara (the uhh, Axes?) Markus started the scoring for the game. Iin the second, he skated in as part of a three on two and took a crossrink pass from Esa Pirnes to make it 1-0 in a 3-2 overtime loss.
Markus was held pointless in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Pelicans but he played a game high for both teams (and a career high) 28:43 in the matchup.
Also, last week was time to find out who will play in the CHL final as Karpat played game two in their series with Lukko Rauma. In the second, just after a non goal, Markus got the puck off a faceoff and passed to Sebastian Aho (the Finnish one…theres two of them folks) who found Mika Pyorala in the slot to make it 1-0. After a Locks goal in the second, the Stoats struck again in the third when Finnish wunderkind Jesse Puljujarvi skated through the defense and found Markus at the point. The Jackets’ prospect hammered it to give Karpat a 2-1 lead. Rauma scored again in the third to tie the game but Karpat won on aggregate winning 5-4.
In the tournament final, Karpat will take on Swedish club Frolunda. For the tournament, Markus currently leads in +/- with a +11. Markus was interviewed by the CHL’s site about his play in the game.
Vladislav Gavrikov-Lokomotiv (KHL)
Season Stats 38GP 3-4-7 +15 18PIM
Vladislav snapped a seven game pointless streak this week. He picked up an assist on Andrei Loktionov’s opening goal in a 5-2 win over HC Sochi. Vladislav was held pointless in a 1-0 win over Severstal.
Elvis Merzlikins-HC Lugano (NLA)
Season Stats 36GP 22W 2.67GAA .926Sv% 1SO
After taking a 3-2 loss to Zug, Elvis picked up his 22nd win of the season with a 7-4 win over Laussane. He made 22 saves in his 25th straight start.
There you have it folks, another week in the word of CBJ prospects. For the next recap, I’ll share my take on the Monsters’ 1pm game Saturday when they returned to the Q.
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