Greetings all, I’ve made a bit of a change in this week’s recap. With the Monsters only playing two games last week we’re gonna hold off on their update til next week and we can get back on the weekly recap schedule and this week we’ll open up in Finland for a final recap of the World Junior Championships.
First up we’d have a matchup of the Jackets last three first round picks.
In the 1-0 Swedish win Gabriel Carlsson picked up an assist on the only goal of the game when he started the breakout that Alexander Nylander would finish on a two on one with Dmytro Timashov. In the 1-0 loss, Zach Werenski was named Team USA’s player of the game and receive a shaving kit(no, seriously).
Gabriel was held pointless in a 5-0 win over Denmark.
In the US’ next game, they posted all the goals they had saved from the Sweden game. In the 10-1 win over Switzerland, Sonny Milano and Zach both had multi-point games, as would pretty much anyone on team USA). Starting off in the first Sonny curled around the net and passed to Werenski who fired a bomb from the point with Christian Dvorak getting the goal. Later in the first with the US leading 2-0, Zach passed to Brandon Carlo who skated in and fired a shot to make it 3-0. Just moments later, Zach scored on a three on two after he received a drop pass from Dvorak (Sonny picked up the other assist).
To close out the round robin portion of the tournament, the US took on Denmark. the Danes took a 1-0 lead before the US struck. With the game tied at one, Sonny scored his only goal of the tournament when, at the doorstep, he banged home a rebound to make it 2-1. Later in the game, Sonny picked up an assist when his shot was tipped by Anders Bjork to clinch the 4-1 win.
Sweden closed out the round robin against Canada. In that game, Gabriel picked up another assist when his point shot was stopped but Anton Karlsson was able to capitalize and make it 5-2.
Next up in the Quarterfinals, Gabriel was held pointless in a 6-0 win over Slovakia and the US’ game would be just as much of a blowout.
First, with Team USA already leading 1-0 over the Czechs, Sonny passed into the slot with Carlo gathered the puck and firing off a shot. That started a scramble in front that Dvorak finished to make it 2-0. After another US goal, Zach passed to Nick Schmaltz who skated in, shot, and found his own rebound before passing to Auston Matthews who made it 4-0. In the third, Zach added another assist when he dropped a pass to Matthews who fired a rocket from the point to make it 6-0 in a 7-0 victory.
In the semis, Gabriel was again pointless in a 2-1 loss to eventual champion Finland.
In the US’ semifinal 2-1 loss to Russia, the Jacket kids helped Christian Dvorak make it 1-0 even if it was Sonny doing all the work (another angle here). But the US eventually fell by a score of 2-1 and that set up another game against Sweden, (here are Zach’s postgame comments).
In a game that may have been hard for the Swedes to get up for, well…Gabriel was again held pointless while Sonny and Zach each picked up an assist. In the first, leading 1-0, Zach picked up an assist when his point shot was tipped by Matthew Tkachuk to make it 2-0. Sonny picked up an assist on Anders Bjork’s goal to make it 5-2 in a 8-3 US win. Here are Sonny’s post game comments.
Overall for the tournament, Zach was one of the overall stars. He tied for the defenseman points lead with Finland’s Olli Juolevi, and was also named as one of Team USA’s top three players as decided by the coaches. Zach also became the third CBJ draft picked to be named top defenseman for the tournament, joining Rostislav Klesla and Vladislav Gavrikov who received the same honor at last year’s tournament.
Kole Sherwood-London Knights (OHL)
Season Stats 37GP 12-18-30 +12 26PIM
It was a light week for Kole and the Knights who played only two games. Kole was pointless in the first game marking five games without a point for Kole. But Sherwood snapped that streak against Guelph when he picked up an assist on Aaron Berisha’s goal. Kole entered the zone on a three on two before passing to Owen MacDonald who found Berisha to make it 4-2 in a 7-3 Knights win.
Julien Pelleier-Sherbrooke Phoenix (QMJHL)
Season Stats 37GP 19-14-33 -19 31PIM
Julien kept his point streak alive in a 2-1 overtime loss when, in the first and with his team trailing 1-0, Julien got the puck out to the point where Julien Bahl hammered a shot towards the goal. That puck was stopped but Donald Audette was at the doorstep to tie the game.
Julien’s six game point streak was snapped when he went without a point in the team’s next two games. During the streak, he picked up seven points total (2-5-7).
Keegan Kolesar-Seattle Thunderbirds (WHL)
Season Stats 39GP 18-24-42 +8 69PIM
Keegan, like Kole, had a light week and was also held pointless in a game against Portland before scoring his 18th goal of the season against Everett. Early in the first, Ryan Gropp got the puck to Jared Hauf at the point. Hauf’s shot was stopped allowing Keegan to gather the rebound and pot his 18th of the year in a 3-2 overtime win. Keegan’s goal was only the 17th goal the Tips have allowed in the first period all season.
Zach Werenski-Michigan (Big 10)
Season Stats 17GP 6-9-15 +3 8PIM
Zach returned to Ann Arbor fresh off the World Junion Championships and was given the choice on Wednesday by Coach Red Berenson if he was going to play Friday night after returning from Finland. Well, play he did. Zach went ahead and had himself a weekend against rival Michigan State…which some people seemed to think wouldn’t happen due to a rumored report from the Columbus paper, The Dispatch.
It was reported that Zach Werenski was “unhappy in college and thinking of turning pro” and that got some of you thinking the CBJ would welcome Zach to their blueline. Zach saw the report and brushed it off. He also sent his teammates a message saying he’s coming back in their group text.
As for against Sparty, after a first period I would call boo-nanas (not Nieves) the game entered the first intermission with the Wolverines leading 5-2.
Early in the second, Zach struck when, with Michigan skating in on a two on two, (a play the play by play guy said was offside but wasn’t) Zach served as trailer and fired a shot to make it 6-2 in a 9-2 Wolverine win.
The next night when the rematch switched to Ann Arbor, Zach was again a star and…WE GOT ANOTHER WACKY ZACH WERENSKI GOAL CELEBRATION!!! Ok, that comes later but first, the defenseman earned an assist when early in the second, he fired a shot that was stopped but bounced out straight to Cooper Marody at the doorstep who made it 2-1 Michigan.
After another Michigan goal, Zach got the puck and stickhandled into the slot before firing a shot that make it 4-1 Wolverines in a 6-2 win.
The goal was the game winner.
As for the celebration, well, who knew Zach could play the violin.
And next week ZACH WERENSKI IS COMING TO COLUMBUS…to play Ohio State as part of a home and home. I’ll be at the game Friday that will be played at the Schott before switching to Yost on Sunday.
Markus Nutivaara-Karpat (Liiga)
Season Stats 38GP 4-15-19 +9 12PIM
Markus and Karpat opened the week against Lukko. In a 5-4 overtime win, Markus picked up two assists. The first came with Karpat trailing 2-1 when Markus fired a shot from the point that was tipped by team captain Lasse Kukkonen. Then in overtime, Markus started the rush and passed to Juuso Ikonen who skated in and passed the puck to Esa Pirnes who scored on a wild one timer.
Next against SaiPa, well, this is an odd one. On the Liiga site Markus was given credit for an assist on the game winner but if you watch the highlight video it shows the scoring play and Markus wasn’t even on the ice.
Markus was held pointless in the team’s next game against HPK.
Elvis Merzlikins-HC Lugano (National League A)
Season Stats 34GP 21-9-2-1 2.48GAA .931SV% 1SO
Another two starts (making 24 total for those of you scoring at home), another two wins (20) for Elvis. In a back to back against EHC Biel, starting on Saturday, Elvis made 42 saves in a 3-2 win.
On Sunday in the rematch, Elvis was just as busy making 39 saves in another 3-2 Panther win.
On the week Elvis stopped 81 of 85 for a .953 save percentage.
There you have it, folks, another week in the world of CBJ prospects. As for next week, we’ll have impressions from being able to see Zach Werenski live (in Columbus) along with catching up with the Monsters.
Also next week, Saturday will probably be the closest the CBJ prospect universe gets this year to having every prospect playing on the same day (only a few are off, exclusing the injured Paul Bittner and the in limbo Markus Soberg (still haven’t heard anything about where he’ll end up.)
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