Hello all – our updates are becoming a bit shorter with prospects wrapping up their seasons so let’s take a look at the players still in action in the past week.
Starting off in Springfield as we usually do, the Falcons picked up a 3-0 win with Jeremy Smith picking up his first shutout of the season. Andrew Joudrey opened the scoring when Ryan Craig rimmed the puck around the boards to Carter Camper who found Joudrey in front to shoot it past Cal Heeter. In the second period off a scramble in front, Ryan Craig made it 2-0 when Dana Tyrell drove to the net with Andrew Joudrey getting the puck, shooting, and the rebound going to Craig. Late in the third period, Jake Hansen scored his ninth of the season when Lukas Sedlak shot the puck. Heeter stopped it but Hansen knocked in the rebound. In the 3-0 victory Jeremy Smith made 28 saves in the win.
Saturday night the Birds were off to Hartford for a game against the Wolfpack. It was a big game as Jackets 2013 first round pick Marko Dano made his North American debut on a line with Michael Chaput and Jean Francois Jacques. The Falcons took the lead when Darryl Boyce scored 6:29 into the first. The Falcons added two more goals in the second period when Jacques and Boyce scored 20 seconds apart to make it 3-0. Halfway through the third, the Pack got on the scoreboard when Darroll Powe scored. 37 seconds later Carter Camper notched his first goal with the Falcons (and 12 points in 11 games). Just under a minute later, the Falcons struck again when Jean-Francois Jacques scored his second of the game. To finish out the scoring, Marko Dano picked up his first North American point when he battled Tommy Hughes for a puck, knocked him over, and got a shot off with Cody Bass picking up the rebound to make it 6-1 (video from Marko’s facebook page). In the 6-1 win Jeremy Smith made 26 saves. Also worth noting, Springfield fan @Katyloveshockey tweeted that on Marko’s first shift he laid a hit on Wolfpack defenseman/Rangers first round pick Dylan McIlrath giving up six inches and almost 50 pounds.
To close out the week it was off to Glen Falls, NY for another game with the Phantoms. The scoring started in the second period when Ryan Craig and Daryl Boyce scored 4:13 apart before Adirondack scored three straight. Finally, Dana Tyrell tied it at three with his goal. The game would go to a shootout and Andrew Joudrey, Cody Goloubef and Cody Bass would score in the shootout to give the Falcons three straight wins and make them winners in eight of nine. Mike McKenna had 29 saves in the game and stopped four of six in the shootout for his 21st win of the season.
Seth Ambroz, Mike Reilly-Minnesota Golden Gophers
Season Stats SA: 39GP 14-9-23 +9 24PIM MR: 39GP 9-23-32 +22 16PIM
Mike, Seth and the Gophers opened the NCAA Tournament as the number one overall seed and faced off against the Atlantic Hockey Tournament Champion (gotta love automatic bids) the Robert Morris Colonials who were the 16th seed. The game went down as one would expect although RMU actually scored more goals than I thought they would in a 7-3 loss. In the pregame, commentator Sean Ritchlin said this about Mike “(he is) the most pleasurable player to watch in college hockey. He is so good in so many different ways from the defense creating offense, the way he skates is incredible.”
In the third period with Minnesota on the power play, Mike followed a puck into the corner and passed it to Taylor Cammarata. Taylor took a shot that the Colonials goalie stopped but Hudson Fasching was at the doorstop to make it 5-2. Seth picked up an assist on an empty net goal that made it 6-3 Gophers. 41 seconds later Mike also scored the extra point to finish the Gophers 7-3 victory.
Quickly a scary moment for Seth – in the second period, after Robert Morris’ Cody Wydo scored, for some reason he decided to kick Seth in the leg on the faceoff earning Wydo an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
Up next was a matchup with old WCHA/in-state rival the St Cloud State Huskies. In that game both prospects picked up points in the 4-0 Gopher victory which tied the Gophers for third most all time 21st NCAA tournament appearances. Seth scored his 14th goal in the second period when Seth, as he does, collected the rebound of a Jake Parenteau shot and got it past a sprawling Huslies goaltender to make it 2-0. In the third, with the Gophers on the power play, Mike picked up his 20th point when Travis Boyd passed the puck back to Mike who fired a one timer that the Huskies goalie stopped but Kyle Rau was able to pick up the rebound to make it 4-0. Mike was named to the All-Regional Team with his goal and two assists.
Up next it’s a trip to Philadelphia for a National Semifinal game against Minnesota’s archrival the North Dakota…North Dakotans (stupid NCAA) for the 284th time – the 3rd most among any rivalry. Had these two teams not met in the Frozen Four, that streak of playing against one another (since 1948) would have been broken. This will be the late game (8:30pm) of the Frozen Four on April 10th and the National Championship Game (if the Gophers win) taking place on April 12th.
TJ Tynan-Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Final Regular Season Stats 40GP 8-30-38 +15 30PIM
Final Career Stats 164GP 54-107-161 132PIM
TJ and the Irish took on the St Cloud State Huskies in the first round with the Huskies picking up a 4-3 overtime win. TJ earned the final point of his NCAA career in the first when he dropped a pass to Andy Ryan who found Bryan Rust. Rust went to the circle and snapped a shot home to tie it at one. TJ’s career will go down as one of the best in Irish history- TJ is tied with current teammates Stephen Johns and Kevin Deeth (06-10) for the all-time lead in games played. His 107 assists is tied for ninth all time and his 161 points are tied for 12th all time (thanks to Irish play by play man Darin Pritchett for these numbers).
The Jackets have to make a decision on TJ – whether to sign him or let him become an unrestricted free agent. I’m not sure what to say on this – I almost think he gets a tryout with Springfield. Tynan never matched his 54 point freshman season. He dropped to 41 points and then 28 before rebounding to 38 as a senior. TJ is a lot like Cam Atkinson or Matt Calvert but he is a much better playmaker – in fact that’s almost why I think the CBJ would sign him because of his playmaking ability.
Alexander Wennberg-Frolunda (SHL)
SM-Slutspel Stats 7GP 1-0-1 +1 0PIM
Final Regular Season Stats 50GP 16-5-21 -5 8PIM
Alexander and the Indians season ended last week after playing games six and seven of their first round series against Linkoping. Starting off in game six, Alexander picked up his first goal in the playoffs when, halfway through the first, he pulled off a wraparound and the puck appeared to bounce off a Linkoping defender and the goalie to make it 1-0. The game would end in a 5-3 game six loss. Alexander and his teammates were held scoreless in a 3-0 game seven loss. Alexander still has a chance to be named the SHL’s rookie of the Year but I’m not sure when that announcement will happen.
The next step is for the Jackets to sign Alexander. For some reason I don’t think he’ll join the Falcons and he definitely won’t be joining the Jackets other than maybe to just practice /be with the team for the playoff run. An article came out sounding like Alexander would be open to the Jackets doing what the Blackhawks did with Teuvo Teräväinen having him take part in training camp before sending him back to his home club then recalling him after their season is completed.
Daniel Zaar-Rogle (Sweden)
Kval Till SHL Stats 7GP 1-7-8 +3 14PIM
Daniel and Rogle opened last week with a 3-2 come from behind shootout win against Orebro in which Daniel was held pointless. In the team’s next game, Daniel was held pointless in a 5-3 loss to Djurgarden but that doesn’t mean he didn’t show up on the scoresheet. Daniel took a checking to the head penalty and earned 12 penalty minutes. In the rematch, Daniel got back into scoring and picked up two assists in a 4-2 loss. In the third period Daniel earned two assists on an early goal and a late goal.
There you have it folks – another week in the world of Blue Jacket prospects. As for next week, our recap will be light with only the Falcons and Daniel Zaar still in action; but very soon I should be able to recap the Jacket’s CHL prospects’ first round.
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