AHL
The St. John’s IceCaps are horrible or at least they have been to date. Their roster was thin on paper and it has been hit hard by injuries. They aren’t close to being competitive. The team hasn`t come close to filling the void left by Andrew Gordon, Jerome Samson and Kael Mouillierat. On the bright side, their offense did pick up a little, but neither goalie looks like they can stop a beachball at this point. Super prospect, Connor Hellebuyck is rolling at a .900 save percentage and Peter Budaj is clocking in at .891. The IceCaps have allowed 31 goals against in their last six game, including 15 goals against in three games this week and the team is at serious risk of seeing their record setting sellout streak come to an end.
Points:
Eric O`Dell 1G
Ben Chiarot 1G 1A
Will O`Neill 1G 3A
Brenden Kichton 1G 1A
J.C. Lipon 1A
John Albert 1G 1A
CHL
Jan Kostalek and Nikolaj Ehlers each picked up points this week. Kostalek recorded one assist in two games played. Ehlers picked up 1 goal and two assists in his two games. He is up to 17 points in 13 games played. His points per game has been steadily climbing after a slow start. Nik is currently on a five game point streak. He has two goals and seven assist in the five games.
Jimmy Lodge played three games in three nights this weekend netting himself one goal and three assists.
In the WHL, Nice Petan had himself a nice night on Saturday, recording a goal and two assists. He picked up another assist in the Winterhawks other game. Teammate Chase De Leo scored one goal in the two games. He was blanked in the other. Chase has only been held off the score sheet three times in 19 games played this season.
Neither Axel Blomqvist or Nelson Nogier recorded a point this week. Josh Morrissey played twice and recorded one assist in two games played. Eric Comrie played three games, winning all three an only allowed four goals in the process. He was very good.
Subway Super Series
Eric Comrie, Nic Petan, Josh Morrissey and 2015 draft pick Pavel Kraskovsky each made appearances in the opening two games of the Subway Super Series. Team WHL dropped both games and goaltending was probably the difference. Team WHL outshot and out-chanced team Russia in both games. Russia’s goalies were awesome.
The WHL Jets‘ prospects were solid, but not spectacular. Neither of the skaters were able to record a point.
And then there is Pavel Kraskovsky. The largely unseen and unknown Winnipeg Jets 6th round pick was viewed for the first time by many eager Jets' fans. He acquitted himself very well. Kraskovsy was trusted to play on both special teams units is each game. He scored a shootout goal in the opener and carried team Russia to victory, with three points, in game two.
There was a load of versatility showed in Kraskovsky's production too. His shootout goal showcased some really nice hand. In regular game play, Pavel scored his first on a seeing-eye wrister on the powerplay. His second goal came with some beautiful netfront work where he used his reach and a backhand to render the goalie helpless. His prettiest point might have been his assist though. Pavel took the puck wide and fed a pass across the crease and onto the tape of Andrey Alexeev's stick for a tap in.
He looked good away from the puck too. His line was arguably Russia's best in both games. Pavel showed good speed, strong positional awareness and some serious smarts to go with his sizable 6'4 frame. It is also worth noting, Pavel was one of the youngest players taken in the 2014 NHL Draft. This theoretically puts him behind the curve a bit. This was not readily apparent. He is definitely an interesting piece.
NCAA
Jamie Phillips is on fire! After winning back to back conference awards, Phillips remained strong, stopping 46 of 46 shots in two games played. Michigan Tech remains the team with the best record in the country.
Elsewhere, Jack Glover played in both of Minnesota’s games this weekend. He picked up his first college point in the first of those two showings. CJ Franklin picked up another point. Jason Kasdorf played a pair of games. He was strong in one and got lit up some in the other. Aaron Harstad scored a goal with a Peter Stoykewych assist. Michigan (Andrew Copp) did no play.
Three Stars
1) Let's make it three in a row! Jamie Phillips earns his third consecutive three stars appearance. This kid is playing some incredible hockey right now. After allowing three goals in his first start of the season, Phillips has allowed a total of six goals in his next seven games. He has two shutouts in that stretch and has only once allowed multiple goals. On the season, Phillips has allowed nine goals in eight games. He has a .957 save percentage and a goals against average of 1.13. Michigan Tech is doing a nice job suppressing shots against, but Jamie is more than doing his fair share.
2) Eric Comrie rebounded from a rough two game stretch to posts three dominant showings. Eric picked up his first shutout of the season last Wednesday. He followed that up by stopping 36 of 38 (.947) and 23 of 25 (.920) over the weekend – that amounts to a cumulative save percentage of .955.
3) Jimmy Lodge gets the nod for third star this week. Jimmy is rolling. He has points in each of his last four games played, totalling three goals and three assists over that stretch. Looking a little further back, he has seven goals and five assists in his last ten. Hope he keeps it up.
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