Fresh from a road trip to Erie, I’m back with your weekly update on the Jackets prospects.
Last weekend was one of two goal games and shutouts in Springfield as the Falcons continued to hold onto the best record in the Eastern Conference. Starting off on Friday, it was the Tim Erixon show guest starring the puck stopping antics of Curtis McElhinney. In the 2-0 win over the Whale, Erixon would score both goals off blasts from the slot or point giving him three goals in his last two games after scoring three in 52 games last season. Curtis McElhinney made 20 saves in the shutout for his third of the season. After a day off, the Falcons would take on the Calder Cup champion the Norfolk Admirals. In the 5-0 win, the majority of the goals were scored off rebounds allowed by both Admiral goalies. Nick Drazenovic scored the first of his two goals just 41 seconds into the game when he tapped in a Cam Atkinson shot. Nick’s second goal would again come off a Atkinson shot when Cam had a breakaway. Igor Bobkov made the save, but Drazenovic would have a wide open net for his team leading sixth goal. Matt Calvert’s goals were almost identical as he scored off rebounds within inches of the crease. JAM would add his fifth off a rebound. Curtis McElhinney made 35 shots in the win for his second of the weekend giving the Falcons back to back shutouts for the first time since having three straight in 1996. Cam Atkinson would lead the Falcons in scoring with five assists, Nick Drazenovic had two goals and two assists with Matt Calvert and Tim Erixon’s two-goal games being the only other Falcons with multiple points. McElhinney would be named AHL/CCM player of the week with his two shutouts. Starting next week, the Falcons will be road warriors after having nine of their first 11 being at the nest with 12 of its next 16 on the road.
Down in Evansville, the IceMen would go 1-3 last week losing two to Greenville and Ft Wayne before beating South Carolina on Saturday. Austin Madaisky again were the only Jackets prospect to score picking up an assist against Greenville then scoring his first pro goal in the loss to Fort Wayne. Will Weber and Madaisky would be the only prospects to play in all four games with Anton Blomqvist missing the game against Greenville on Wednesday. Will Weber was called up this week as Falcons defenseman Cody Goloubef will miss six to 10 weeks with a hand injury.
Quickly, we’ll go over who didn’t score last week, as only three prospects didn’t pick up a point. Ryan Murray wouldn’t score any points in the Silvertips three games last week going 1-2. But there was good news-it was announced that Ryan will serve as captain for Team WHL when it faces off against Russia in the Super Series. Drew Olson would go scoreless in the Bulldogs two losses to Nebraska-Omaha. It was a light week for TJ Tynan – only playing a game against Boston College in the Holy War on Ice a day before the Holy War in football. In the 3-1 Eagle loss, TJ would add to his career long pointless streak stretching it to five games. TJ will try to bounce back in the Irish’s series at Michigan.
Now on to the rest of the prospect crew:
Oscar Dansk-Erie Otters (OHL)
Season Stats 17GP 6-9-0-2 3.80GAA .903Sv%
Oscar and the Otters would go 2-0 last weekend winning two in a row with Oscar making 40 plus saves in both games. First, on Friday against the Petes, Oscar made 41 saves in a 6-3 win. The next night, when the Oshawa Generals, nine of my friends and myself would invade Erie Insurance Arena, in the 6-1 Otters win Oscar picked up 49 saves. In the win, after allowing a first period goal, Oscar was big and composed, with one series of saves leading me to drop a “break Dansking” pun (sorry, not sorry). Oscar would be named first star with it being the 14th game (of the 17 he’s played) that he’s faced 35+ shots. This led CHL columnist Josh Langdon to channel his inner Don Cherry saying Dansk has “seen more rubber than the Trans-Canada Highway”.
Josh Anderson-London Knights(OHL)
Season Stats 20GP 5-10-15 +2 25PIM
Josh and the Knights would have a three in three with the Knights going 3-0. Josh picked up points in all three. Starting off against Sudbury, Josh picked up an assist on Matt Rupert’s sixth of the season. Only 25 seconds into the third period, Josh would get into his second fight in three games taking on Sudbury’s Charlie Dodero with Anderson being dragged down but getting back up for more. On Saturday, Josh would face off against fellow Jackets prospect Gianluca Curcuruto with the Knights winning 5-0. Josh again picked up an assist and a fight. The assist came on Bo Horvat’s seventh of the season when he carried the puck up the ice before catching a trailing Horvat. As for the fight, there is no video, but according to a London fan I talked to, Josh would take on one of the toughest customers in the OHL-Tom Wilson. After Wilson earned a roughing call on Knights captain Scott Harrington, Josh would step up for his captain. To close out the weekend against Sault Ste Marie, Josh would pick up his fourth multi-point game of the season after only having one all of last season. In the 5-3 Knights win, Josh scored a goal and added an assist to give him 10 assists on the year, matching his total from last season.
Boone Jenner-Oshawa Generals(OHL)
Season Stats 22GP 17-16-33 +6 20PIM
Boone would be busy last week playing four games-one with Team OHL and three with the Generals. Starting off on Wednesday, Boone would play with Team OHL serving as captain in the 2-1 loss. This would be the first time that Russia ever defeated the OHL in the Super Series, with Boone being held scoreless. The next night, Boone headed back to Oshawa to pick up his fifth multi-goal game of the season in a 5-3 loss to Barrie, where he was named first star. The next night against Erie, Boone would be held scoreless but was dangerous all game long. As pointed out by Rob Mixer, Boone was being double shifted in the third period. To finish the weekend off, Jenner picked up an assist in a 2-1 loss to Kitchener.
Gianluca Curcuruto-Plymouth Whalers(OHL)
Season Stats 19GP 1-6-7 +4 12PIM
Gianluca helped the Whalers go 2-1 last week picking up an assist in a win over Saginaw on Tuesday. The assist marked his first point since October 19th. It came off a blast from the point that the Spirit goalie couldn’t handle allowing Matthew Mistele to score his fourth of the season. Gianluca was held off the scoresheet in the Whaler’s next two games-a win over Windsor and the loss to London mentioned above.
Lukas Sedlak-Chicoutimi Sagueneens(QMJHL)
Season Stats 21GP 8-8-16 +5 29PIM
Somehow Lukas and the Sags got a crazy light week only playing one game in which they earned a shootout win over Rimouski. In the 3-2 shootout win, Lukas would be the hero tying the game with only two seconds left as the Sags had pulled goalie Julio Bullia. Going off the video, Lukas was the extra attacker coming from the bench and, with a scrum in front and a Oceanic player on his own goalie, Lukas would corral the puck scoring into the empty net. Lukas would miss in the shootout shooting third. He also won 15 of 29 faceoffs.
Thomas Larkin-Colgate(ECAC)
Season Stats 11GP 1-3-4 26PIM
The Red Raiders were on the road last week facing Quinnipiac and Princeton. In the shootout loss to the Bobcats, Thomas picked up his first goal of the season giving the Red Raiders seven power play goals in its last five games. Thomas would be held scoreless as would the whole team in a 4-0 loss to Princeton.
Martin Ouelette-Maine(Hockey East)
Season Stats 4GP 1-3 .894Sv% 2.78GAA
Martin played in back to back games for the first time since November 5-6 of last year. On Friday, despite taking a 2-1 loss to UMass-Lowell, Martin was solid, making 23 saves and was named third star. Earning the start the next night, Martin would stop 27 of 30 in a 4-3 win-his first since October 28th of last season. Martin was named first star; he’d also pull off the rare move of earning a hooking penalty in the first period. According to Matt Soucy, Martin has earned the Black Bears starting job after this weekend but this could change game by game as rough as this season has been for the Bears.
Kevin Lynch-Michigan(CCHA)
Season Stats 9GP 4-3-7 10PIM
Its was rivalry week as the Wolverines and Spartans would play a home and home. In the game at Yost which was a 5-1 Michigan win, Kevin was all over the place having a two-on-one early in the game then scoring in the third. In the third period, Zach Hyman got the puck in deep leading to a board battle in which Kevin leveled a Spartan and got the puck out to Lee Moffie. Lee in turn would send a perfect cross rink pass back to Kevin that he buried before the diving Michigan State goalie could get to it (throwing in a Jagr salute also probably more for Veterans Day but who knows). The next night, Kevin would be held scoreless and the Wolverines would get thumped 7-2 by its in state rival. While searching around I found this interview Kevin did for the Wolverines athletic site and it was also shared this week that coach Red Berenson had announced Kevin will serve as a alternate captain for the rest of his senior season.
Seth Ambroz / Mike Reilly-Minnesota(WCHA)
Season Stats SA 9GP 3-3-6 6PIM MR 9GP 0-5-5 6PIM
The Gopher boys were off to Anchorage to face the Seawolves. On Friday night, Seth and Mike were both held scoreless in a 4-0 Gopher win-a win that helped Gopher goalie Adam “Iron Man” (look at his mask) Wilcox earn the rookie of the week award. On Saturday night, Mike earned an assist on Seth’s third goal of the season. According to Minnesota’s site, Seth scored with a shot from his knee. Not sure, however, if that means it bounced off his knee or he scored from his knees.
Joonas Korpisalo-Finland
U20 4 Nations Tournament Stats 3GP 2-0 .958Sv% 1.17GAA 1 Shutout
Joonas Korpisalo suited up for Finland in the Under-20 4 Nations tournament playing against Russia, Czech Republic and host nation Sweden. Starting on Friday, Joonas would get the start against Russia and made 21 saves in a 4-0 Finland win. Finland coach Harri Kristian Rindell broke the unwritten hockey rule by starting Richard Ullberg who’d allow three goals on only 10 shots before turning things over to Joonas who’d stop 17 of the 19 shots he faced in 33:39 minutes of action. To close out the tournament, Joonas would make 31 saves in a 3-1 win over Czech Republic helping Sweden win the tournament going a perfect 3-0. Now you can call me a biased CBJ fan, but Joonas was the top goalie in the tournament with the top save percentage of goalies that played more than one game. He also finished just .17 behind Joel Lassinantti in GAA. According to my Finnish source Eetu Huisman, Joonas will be Finland’s #1 goaltender at the World Juniors when they get under way next month with his performance in this tournament. This could lead to the Jackets having two goalie prospects at the World Juniors as Oscar Dansk should be with the Swedes.
Well there you have it – another week in Jackets prospect land and I guess I’ll let you know you’ll see me on the Jackets website sometime soon as I did a interview with JacketsTV at the Erie game (I was thrown under the bus, I swear). I’ll see you again next week as all the Jackets prospects will be playing plus we’ll discuss how Ryan Murray did in the SuperSeries.
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