Another week in the world of the Blue Jackets prospects with three moving on to the next round in their respective playoff series and another reportedly signing an ATO to join the Falcons. But in somewhat bad news we say “have a good summer” to all the Jacket’s NCAA prospects as all of their seasons have been completed.
Staring off in Springfield, on Thursday night the Birds would get into a wild one with Bridgeport with a new face on the team being the hero. Just 40 seconds after the Tigers made it 1-0, Matthew Ford would get three whacks at the puck before Jonathan Audy-Marchessault found the loose puck for his 19th of the season. The Sound Tigers scored twice to make it 3-1 before Ryan Craig made it 3-2 when he deflected a Matthew Ford shot for his 18th. The Tigers fourth goal would end Allen York’s night for about 12 minutes with Paul Dainton going in but suffering an injury stopping all four shots he faced. York would return to the crease stopping every shot he faced the rest of the way. Matthew Ford would start the comeback when he took a pass from JAM and scored on a pretty backhand for his sixth of the season (second with the Falcons) and his third point of the night. Will Weber scored his second of the season (both against Bridgeport and Rick DiPietro – Still funny!) when a Tigers’ clearing attempt bounced off a teammate’s skate right to Will who skated in on DiPietro and shot a backhand over his shoulder. A few minutes later Alex Aleardi, making his pro debut, found a loose puck after a Spencer Machacek shot for the game winner and his first pro goal. Allen York, despite the shaky start, would stop 15 of 19 in the win – his ninth win of the season.
On Friday, in a quick signing note, it was announced by Aaron Portzline that Kevin Lynch had signed an ATO with the Falcons for the rest of the season (but nothing from the Falcons has been released). Saturday night, the Connecticut Whale came to town with the Falcons picking up a 2-1 victory inching them closer to their first playoff appearance since 2003 and possibly a division title for the first time since 1997. All the offense would happen in the second period. The Falcons struck first when Michael Chaput shot after a tic tac toe passing play between Jonathan Audy-Marchessault and Spencer Machacek with Machacek finding Chaput driving to the net for his 10th of the season. After a Whale goal, Andrew Joudrey won a board battle and found Nick Holden at the blueline. Nick then fired a blast past Jason Missiaen for his eighth of the season. Curtis McElhinney made 25 saves for his 27th victory of the year which is now the second most victories in one season, behind Scott Langkow who won 30 in 1997-98. Leading the way in scoring was Jonathan Audy-Marchessault with a goal and three assists; Matthew Ford was second with three points all in the win over Bridgeport. Spencer Machacek was the only other Falcons player with multiple points with two assists.
In Evansville, the IceMen’s season came to an end going 2-0-1-0 on the week. Starting off on Wednesday, Evansville would snap a four game losing streak with a 4-3 shootout win over Kalamazoo with Oliver Gabriel picking up his fifth goal of the season to make it 2-1 IceMen. To close out the weekend, the IceMen played a back to back with the Cincinnati Cyclones. Friday night Oliver was held off the scoresheet in a 5-4 overtime loss. Saturday night, the IceMen shocked the North Division Champs with a 4-0 victory with Evansville’s coach pulling a “Shawn Hunwick” by giving Kevin Moore the last 3:18 of the game. In the 4-0 victory, Oliver picked up an assist on Jason Dale’s second goal of his hat trick. In their first season as a CBJ affiliate, Evansville went 25-40-3-4 for 50 points the second lowest total in the league. The Jackets had five prospects play for the team with Oliver Gabriel leading the way with 20 games played.
CBJ PROSPECTS ON EVANSVILLE STATS
Oliver Gabriel 20GP 5-5-10 E 0PIM
Austin Madaisky 11GP 2-4-6 -6 2PIM
Anton Blomqvist 36GP 1-2-3 -5 14PIM
Will Weber 8GP 0-0-0 14PIM
Allen York 5GP 3-1-0-1 2.72GAA .919 Save Percentage
Quickly an OHL playoff update as Josh Anderson and Gianluca Curcuruto were held scoreless in their team’s games. Gianluca and the Whalers swept the Sarnia Sting with Gianluca picking up a goal in game one but being held without a point in games two through four. On the series, Gianluca had a goal and was a +7 with seven penalty minutes in the sweep. The Whalers will play the Owen Sound Attack in round two. Josh and the Knights swept the Saginaw Spirit in a series that included a double overtime game in which Red Wings draft pick Jake Paterson stopped 67 of 70 in the loss for Saginaw. In the series, Josh would have a penalty shot goal and would be a +2 with four penalty minutes. The Knights will face the Kitchener Rangers in the second round.
Over in Europe, Anton Forsberg didn’t play in Sodertalje’s first two losses (both by shutout) but he did play the last two periods of SSK’s 8-3 loss stopping 11 of 15 earning a no decision.
Boone Jenner-Oshawa Generals(OHL)
Playoff Stats 5GP 2-3-5 +3 6PIM
The series would continue with game two on Sunday which ended in a 4-3 Generals win with Boone picking up his first point of the playoffs. Boone picked up an assist on Josh Brown’s first period goal when he won a faceoff getting it to Cole Cassels who’d find Brown for a blast from the point. Boone picked up an assist on the Generals second goal of a 4-2 game three loss when he led the rush up ice finding Scott Laughton in the slot. In game four, Boone picked up an assist on Scott Laughton’s shorthanded goal when, off the rush, he found a fresh off the bench Laughton who fired a shot from the slot for his fifth of the series. The Generals won game four 4-1. In game five, Boone did one of the things he did best in the regular season scoring the game opening goal. After a board battle, Matt Petgrave got the puck and found a driving Boone who had a pretty much open net to shoot into for his first of the playoffs. Boone’s second goal would be on an odd play. The puck came out to Scott Sabourin who found Boone in front with the puck going off his skate (of course the IceDogs goalie thought Boone kicked it). In the 3-2 victory, Boone would be named first star. As for the next round its still undetermined who the Generals will play. If Belleville wins (leading the series 3-2 on 3/31) they’ll play Barrie in a 2-3 matchup but if Mississauga wins they’ll play Sudbury who ended the existence of the Brampton Battalion, who are moving to North Bay next season.
Lukas Sedlak-Chicoutimi Sagueneens(QMJHL)
Series Stats 5GP 1-3-4 +1 8PIM
Lukas and the Sags went into the week tied 1-1 with the Quebec Remparts. Lukas would pick up an assist on Charles Hudon’s first goal of the playoffs and also won 16 of 24 faceoffs. Lukas went scoreless in game four winning 17 of 26 faceoffs. Chicoutimi won game five with a 3-1 victory on Friday in which Lukas was held scoreless, but he was a +3 winning 19 of 36 faceoffs. The win would force game six on Sunday.
Kevin Lynch-Michigan(CCHA)
Season Stats 40GP 10-17-27 46PIM
Career Stats 168GP 35-37-72 156PIM 9PPG 2SHG 8GWG
Kevin and the Wolverines faced off against Notre Dame on Sunday with a spot in the NCAA Tournament/the CCHA title on the line. The Wolverines would lose the game 3-1 with Kevin being held scoreless. The loss snapped Michigan’s 22 year streak of playing in the NCAA tournament. Kevin ended his career picking up points in 12 of his last 16 games for a total of 16 points. As I said above, it was reported Kevin signed an ATO with Springfield but nothing official outside of twitter has been announced.
Seth Ambroz / Mike Reilly-Minnesota(WCHA)
Final Season Stats SA:38GP 9-7-16 22PIM MR:37GP 3-11-14 6PIM
The Gopher boys qualified for the NCAA Tournament as the top seed in the West Regional facing Yale who backed into the tournament (they’d been playing well – just stumbled in the ECAC tournament). Mike and Seth were held without a point in the 3-2 overtime loss. The Gophers put up two third period goals but would lose it nine seconds into overtime. On the season, Seth doubled his point total from last season in three less games and should return to Minnesota more than likely playing the same role on the team as this season. As for Mike, his 14 points were good for third among WCHA freshmen defensemen, Mike could see a bump in ice time next season as the Gophers’ lone senior was a defensemen and Nate Schmidt could receive plenty of attention from NHL teams despite being a junior.
T.J. Tynan-Notre Dame(CCHA)
Final Season Stats 41GP 10-18-28 28PIM
TJ and the Irish claimed the final CCHA tournament championship with a 3-1 victory over Michigan. TJ picked up an assist on Austin Wuthrich’s third period game winning goal when TJ found Mario Lucia near the crease and, when he mishandled it, Wuthrich banged it home for his fifth of the season. TJ was named tournament MVP with his goal and two assists in the tournament and won the Bill Beagan Trophy. TJ and the Irish’s automatic bid would send them to Toledo as the top seed in the Midwest regional facing St. Cloud State. I was in attendance for the game and oh boy it was ugly for the Irish. The Huskies demolished Notre Dame 5-1. TJ was held scoreless but played a solid game as one of the bright spots in the matchup. A scary moment occurred when TJ ran into the boards awkwardly and skated to the bench not moving his left arm; luckily, he returned to the game. During the defeat Hockey Prospectus’ Corey Pronman tweeted that Tynan could be one to watch about leaving school early but after the game it was reported that Tynan would return for his senior season which doesn’t shock me.
Daniel Zaar-Rogle BK(Sweden)
Kval till Elitserien Stats 5GP 1-0-1 -4 2PIM
Daniel and Rogle went 0-2 this past week. Starting off on Tuesday, Daniel was held scoreless in a 1-0 loss to Timra. Daniel scored Rogle’s second goal in a 5-2 loss to Orebro Hockey when Ted Brithren flipped the puck towards the net and Daniel got a piece of it with the puck going five hole.
There you have it folks! Another week in the world of the future Blue Jackets. As for next week, we’ll have the CHL second round matchups and who knows? We may have someone new to fill you in on – you never know with the trade deadline!
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