January 12-18 CBJ Prospect Week in Review

Greetings all! I’m back after our latest top 20 prospect update for the week in review. We’ll start off on a rare light week in Springfield.

The Falcons were off to Albany for a game against the Devils. After a scoreless first, Kerby Rychel tipped a Frederic St Denis point shot to make it 1-0. The Devils tied it with just under a minute remaining before winning it in overtime. Anton Forsberg made 25 saves in the 2-1 loss. Closing the week off against Binghamton, the Falcons went through a rough one. After a scoreless first period, the Sens built a 3-0 lead before St Denis scored to make it 3-1. After a late Sens goal, Lukas Sedlak and Austin Madaisky scored to make it 4-3 but the Sens finished it by scoring two empty net goals. Forsberg would take the loss stopping 13 of 17 in the first two periods before handing things over to Oscar Dansk stopping all nine shots he faced. As for next week, the Falcons will play two games before taking time for the AHL All Star game.

Blake Siebenaler-Niagara IceDogs (OHL)
Season Stats 43 7-18-25 -3 17PIM
It was a busy week for Blake and the Dogs as they played four games in six nights. Starting off against Mississauga, Blake picked up an assist on Jordan Maletta’s goal in a 7-2 Dogs win. After being held pointless in an overtime loss to North Bay, Blake would get back on the scoresheet with an assist against Kingston. In the third, Blake threw a puck crossrink with it bouncing off the boards to Brian Bronson who fired a shot to make it 3-2 Fronternacs. The Dogs would tie it late but eventually fell in overtime. Blake was held pointless in a 4-3 overtime win over Belleville.

Sonny Milano-Plymouth Whalers (OHL)
Season Stats 24GP 12-27-39 -7 8PIM
Count the Whalers as another team with a light week. They played only two games since our last recap. Starting off against Sarnia, Sonny picked up an assist late in a 5-2 loss. With the Whalers trailing 5-1, a Sting player tried to get the puck out by bouncing it off Sonny who was able to pass to Frencesco Vilardi who dropped the puck to Connor Sills. Sills would get the goal to make it 5-2. In a blowout win over Sudbury, Sonny was named first star after putting up two goals and a assist.

Markus Soberg-Windsor Spitfires (OHL)
Season Stats 38GP 9-12-21 -3 16PIM
Markus and the Spits opened the week against the Wolves. In the 4-1 win, Markus picked up an assist on Trevor Murphy’s empty net goal. Markus was held pointless in the Spitfires’ next two games.

Peter Quenneville-Brandon Wheat Kings (WHL)
Season Stats 46GP 12-29-41 +2 16PIM
Peter was held pointless in a game against Edmonton before picking up his first two goal game since December 3rd. In the first, Peter gathered the rebound of a Reid Duke shot and made it 2-0 Kings before scoring his second of the game just 3:15 later. Later in the first, Peter intercepted a pass/clearing attempt and skated in and fired a shot to make it 3-0. The game ended in a 8-5 Wheat Kings victory and Peter was named second star. Peter picked up an assist in the Wheat King’s 5-3 victory over Swift Current on Braylon Shymr’s third period goal.

Oliver Bjorkstrand-Portland Winterhawks (WHL)
Season Stats 34GP 27-27-54 +23 23PIM
Oliver opened the week by winning his second WHL Player of the Week Award making him the first two time winner of the season. Oliver appeared on the WHL Radio Show for winning the award. Oliver had his five game point streak snapped in a 6-2 loss to Kamloops. Meanwhile for the weekend, it was off to Canada for the final time this season with to a back to back with Prince George. On Friday night, Oliver picked up an assist on Paul Bittner’s first period goal and he also picked one up on Chase De Leo’s first period goal (sorry don’t really see them in the highlights). In the rematch, Oliver opened the scoring midway through the first when he worked a give and go with Bittner to make it 1-0. In the second, Oliver picked up an assist on Brendan De Jong’s first WHL goal. Oliver struck again early in the third when on a three on two he took a pass and snapped a shot past the Cougar’s goalie to make it 4-0. The goal would be the 12,000th in Winterhawks history (Oliver has scored 108 of the 12,004 all time). After two Cougar goals, Oliver passed the puck to Layne Viveiros whose point shot made it 6-2. Oliver would be named first star in the win.

Mike Reilly-Minnesota Golden Gophers (Big 10)
Season Stats 20GP 4-19-23 +11 42PIM
It was Border Battle weekend in St Paul as the Gophers welcomed the Wisconsin Badgers to town. Friday night in a shootout loss (goes as a tie nationally, SOL in the Big 10) Mike picked up no points but was named second star – he took 10 shots on goal in the game.

In the rematch on Saturday, it was the kind of game you would expect from two rivals. Mike picked up his first assist on Travis Boyd’s opening goal when he passed to brother Connor who fired a shot. The Badgers goalie stopped the puck but gave up the rebound to Travis Boyd who made it 1-0. Later in the first, Mike helped the Gophers strike again when he chipped the puck ahead to Sam Warning whose shot was stopped but allowed Boyd to score his second of the game after some deliberation. In the second, Mike started a rush and dropped a pass to Vinnie Lettieri who shot wide allowed Christian Isackson to gather the puck and slid it past the Badger’s goalie to score and to snap a 30 game goalless streak. The Badgers scored two goals in the third to make it look like a game. The third is also when all hell would break loose with as many as five Gophers in the box. And it would be late in the third when Mike would get in a bit of trouble (even if it was a Badger that started it). When a Badger went high on Leon Bristedt, Mike was the first Gopher in to stand up for his teammate and he earned a game misconduct for his efforts. For fun, these two teams meet again in two weeks.

Daniel Zaar-Lulea (CHL)
Tournament Stats 11GP6-7-13 +4 0PIM Tied for fourth in the tournament
Daniel was held pointless in two SHL games but continued to pick up points in the first game of the CHL series with SHL rival Skelleftea AIK. Daniel, while wearing the Cramo Top Scorer jersey, picked up an assist on Kristian Nakyva’s late game tying goal. The game ended in a tie meaning whoever wins on Tuesday will advance to the CHL finals and play the winner of Frolunda and Karpat Oulu.

Joonas Korpisalo-Ilves (Liiga-Finland)
Season Stats 24GP 12-8 2.19GAA .924SV% 1SO
It was an up and down week for Joonas. He didn’t get a start until Wednesday but would make his way into the crease when Juha Järvenpää was pulled after allowing two goals on four shots 9:42 into the game. Joonas went the rest of the way stopping 14 of 16 in a 5-0 Lynxes loss. Up next in a game against Kalpa, Joonas picked up his first shutout of the season making 26 saves in the victory.

There you have it folks – another week in the world of Jackets prospects. Next week will be full of All Star fun with both the NHL and AHL All-Star games going on Saturday-Monday. While the NHL is of course here in Columbus, Anton Forsberg and Austin Madaisky will be off to Utica for the AHL festivities.