Greetings all! It’s time for another week in review and it was a busy week for the boys in the AHL who had four games on tap.
To start things off, the Monsters ended their 10 game road trip with a game against Marko Dano and the Rockford IceHogs. The Hogs went out to a 2-0 lead before the Great Dane struck in the third period. Alex Broadhurst intercepted a pass and found Oliver Bjorkstrand who skated in and fired a shot from the circle to make it 2-1 in a 3-1 loss. Anton Forsberg had 23 saves in the loss. The team allowed an empty net goal to Bryan Bickell.
When the Monsters finally returned to the Q, it was game #876 this season against the Grand Rapids Griffins. After the Griffs went up 1-0, Bjorkstrand scored his first of the night. Dillon Heatherington passed the puck to Oliver who skated in and fired a shot from the circle to make it 1-1. In the second period, Bjorkstrand struck again when he picked up the rebound of an Oleg Yevenko shot to give the Monsters a 2-1 lead. The Monsters did allow an early third period goal to tie it and push the game to overtime. Ultimately, the Monsters lost 3-2. Forsberg made 43 saves in the loss.
For the weekend, the Milwaukee Admirals came to town and quickly took a 1-0 lead before, late in the second, fresh off signing his PTO, Steve Eminger scored. The goal came when Michael Paliotta fired a shot, broke his stick and TJ Tynan got the rebound before finding Eminger at the circle to tie it at one. The game went to overtime and it wasn’t until late that fresh from Columbus Markus Hannikainen skated in on a two on one with Michael Chaput. Hannikainen passed to Chaput in the slot and he fired a shot to win it (even getting a second crack at it just for good measure) to clinch the win.
Saturday in the rematch, I headed up to the Q for the game and well…it was an ugly game for the Monsters who fell by a score of 1-0. There really isn’t much to tell about the game, the Monsters could barely control the puck and the Ads played a heck of a game defensively.
Kole Sherwood-London Knights (OHL)
Season Stats 43GP 12-19-31 +10 30PIM
Kole and the Knights opened the week against Kitchener and Kole picked up an assist. In the second with game tied at two, Kole skated in on a three on two and dropped a pass to Victor Mete who scored to make it 3-2 in a 5-4 Knights win. Kole went without a point in the Knights next three games.
Blake Siebenaler-Niagara IceDogs (OHL)
Season Stats 42GP 3-16-19 +6 6PIM
Blake played in only one of the Dogs games this week against Owen Sound. With the Attack leading 2-1 Blake hammered a shot that was blocked allowing Josh Ho-Sang to gather the puck and find Jordan Maletta at the circle. He was able to tie the game at two in a 7-4 IceDogs loss. Blake missed the Dogs’ next two games with a broken hand. He’s hoping to return next week.
Olivier LeBlanc-Cape Breton Screaming Eagles (QMJHL)
Season Stats 41GP 5-23-28 +19 53PIM
Fresh off being named first star of the QMJHL, Olivier picked up an assist in another Eagles blowout win. In the second, with the Eagle up 3-0, Olivier dumped the puck (or at least got the puck deep – it’s hard to tell since you don’t see him in the highlights) and Phelix Martineau gather it to go around the net and find Massimo Carozza to make it 4-0 in a 10-2 Eagles win. Olivier went without a point in the team’s next two games.
Julien Pelletier-Sherbrooke Phoenix (QMJHL)
Season Stats 43GP 21-15-36 -20 33PIM
Julien opened the week by going without a point against Drummondville before having his first multipoint game in a month. Against Moncton, Julien opened the scoring when he took the puck at his own blueline and skated through the entire Wildcat defense before snapping a backhand just in front of the goalie. In the second with the Birds leading 4-0, off a faceoff and a board battle, Julien got the puck in front and again used a backhand for his 21st of the season. The Phoenix won the game 7-1. Julien went without a point in Sherbrooke’s last game of the week against Blainville.
Keegan Kolesar-Seattle Thunderbirds (WHL)
Season Stats 45GP 23-25-48 +7 82PIM
Opening up the week against Saskatoon, in the second period up 1-0, Keegan sent a crossrink pass that Mathew Barzal gathered after it was tipped. Barzal then got the puck back to Keegan in the slot and Keegan scored his 20th of the season also setting a new career high in a 4-0 win.
Up next in the I5 Rivalry weekend with Portland, Keegan was part of all three TBird goals. First in the second, Keegan skated in on a two on one with Donavan Neuls passing it back to Nuels just in front of the net making it 1-0 on a shorthanded goal. Later in the second, Keegan struck on the power play when he took a pass from Ryan Gropp and snapped a shot to make it 2-0. Keegan ended his three point night by taking a pass from Alexander True at the redline, skating along the boards while being checked and then snapping off a shot into the empty net, The three point night would earn Keegan first star honors.
In the rematch on Saturday it was Teddy Bear Toss night in Seattle and well, as it’s been all season the CBJ prospect didn’t score it but he was close. After the bears had flown at the end of the first, Keegan scored on pretty much the same set up as his goal against Saskatoon earlier in the week. Unfortunately, that was all the offense the Birds would garner as they fell 5-2.
Tyler Bird-Brown (ECAC)
Season Stats 19GP 3-1-4 -8 2PIM
Tyler scored his first goal in seven games when he scored his third goal of the season in a 6-2 loss to St Lawrence. Tyler and all his teammates were held without a point in a 5-0 loss to Clarkson.
Veeti Vainio-Blues (Liiga)
Season Stats 17GP 0-2-2 E 8PIM
Veeti snapped an eight game pointless streak against HIFK when he picked up an assist after taking a shot that Eetu-Ville Arkiomaa got a whack at before Peter Tiivola ended up scoring to make it 1-1 in a 3-2 Blues loss. Veeti was held without a point in the rematch the next day.
Elvis Merzlikins-HC Lugano (NLA)
Season Stats 37GP 23W 2.65GAA .927Sv% 1SO
Elvis opened the week by taking the loss in a 6-2 loss to EHC Biel. The goaltender made 36 saves before bouncing back against Fribourg-Gottéron.
In the 7-4 win over the Dragons, Elvis had 37 saves and picked up his 22nd win of the season.
Closing out the week against SC Bern, Elvis again faced a ton of rubber as he saw 48 shots and stopped 46 of them along with all four shots he faced in the shootout. Quickly check out ex NHLer Damian Brunner’s game winner in the shootout, it was pretty impressive.
Markus Soberg-Valerenga (GET-Ligean)
Season Stats 2GP 0-1-1 E 2PIM
Yes, folks, we finally got a Markus Soberg update. It was announced that Markus signed with Norwegian club Valerenga Ishockey of Norway’s top League GET-Ligaen. Valerenga has both a family and a Blue Jackets connection as the team is coached by CBJ great (my post, my opinion) Espen Knutsen and the team’s starting goalie is Markus’ older brother, Steffen.
In his debut, Markus was held pointless in a 2-1 shootout win over Lillehammer IK before picking up his first pro point on an assist of Jonas Oppoyen’s goal in a 3-2 Valerenga loss to Stjernen Hockey. The game also featured two OSU alums as Curtis Gedig and Brady Hjelle played for Stjernen Hockey.
There you have it folks, another week in the world of Blue Jackets prospects. We’ll be back next week with an AHL All Star Game update (Monday at 8). With Kerby Rychel, who was the Monsters’ original participant, still with the Blue Jackets, center and team leading scorer TJ Tynan takes over as the All-Star of choice for Lake Erie.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
